Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
by geeves
Summary: Dean's nightmares bring up issues he'd left in the past until now. Will he be able to let sleeping dogs lie?Disclaimer: You know... the usual lol I don't own anything related to Supernatural. Just having a little fun.Warning: There is definitely some coar
1. Chapter 1 What Dreams May Come

_**What dreams may come**_

I'm ten years old. I haven't had a home since I was four. It's okay though because I have dad and Sammy. They _are_ 'home'. Besides, being on the road is kinda fun even though I'm the one taking care of Sammy most of the time. Sort of like a vacation that never ends. Well, except for the fact that I'm responsible for keeping Sammy safe. _Yeah_, that stuff Dad does is scary and dangerous… but if he didn't do it then a lot of the people he helped and protected would end up dead or worse. Besides, how many other ten year olds get to do cool stuff like melt silver into bullets? I learned how to shoot a gun before Sammy knew how to walk. Being scared sucks for sure, but it hasn't been so bad since I learned how to hide it. I'm really good at that now. Sammy feels safer and freaks out less when he looks at me and sees that I'm not scared.

I miss mom a lot, more than I ever let on to dad. I asked him where mom was the day after the fire and he started crying. I think that was the scariest thing I ever saw. He's so big and strong and he was sitting right in front of me; a big mess of shaking wet tears like the dad I knew was broken. That's when I knew she was never coming back. I knew that now I had to be strong for dad and for Sammy, I had to take care of them and protect them so that they wouldn't go away too. It's not always fun, but I do it because I know that I have to even though I don't always like the things I have to do. It's my job and I enjoy it because I feel like I'm making a difference. I never even realized I missed our old life, at least not until now.

We see a lot of motels as we cross the country from one end to the other, over and over again. Sometimes, though, dad takes us to stay with his friends. Mostly we stay with Pastor Jim, I guess you could sort of call him our uncle? He and dad are real close. They'd have to be for dad to trust him to watch us when he's away. But he didn't take us to Pastor Jim's this time. I don't know where we are, I lost track of which state we were in a day and a half ago when we left Georgia. He pulled up the drive with a white picket fence that ended in a two-storey, all-american, white clapboard house. The kind where you expected to find the normal, happy, church going family with two and a half kids a dog, a cat and a barbecue. This one didn't disappoint.

Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were awake when we arrived even though it was the middle of the night. We sat in the kitchen with Mrs. Morgan while dad and Mr. Morgan set up a room for the three of us. Sammy ate a couple of cookies before he started to nod off in his chair. Mrs. M saw him jerk himself awake twice before she took matters in her own hands and gently picked him up and laid him down on the couch in the living room. I followed her in so Sammy could see me when he opened his eyes as she laid him down. He's a light sleeper, I think it's because of the nightmares he has. They make him nervous and jumpy for some reason. When he falls asleep in the car and dad has to bring him into wherever we're sleeping for the night he always wakes up the second dad settles him into bed and won't close his eyes until he's sure we're safe.

Sure enough the moment his head touched the throw pillow beneath him his eyes popped wide open and scared. "It's okay Sammy, you're safe. Go back to sleep." I whispered to him from beside Mrs. M His eyes met mine and he relaxed and closed them again, instantly asleep and snoring lightly. Satisfied that our nightly ritual was complete I sighed softly, tiredness beginning to get the better of me.

Mrs. M turned to me, gently turning me with a hand between my shoulder blades and guiding me back to the kitchen. "You take real good care of your little brother Dean" she told me quietly "Now let me take care of you for a little while okay?" I said nothing, letting her guide me to the table and a seat facing the living room where I could watch him sleeping she made coffee. I was bone tired myself, but I had to stay awake for Sammy until dad came downstairs. As it happened so often when I got this tired my entire focus centered on Sammy. Mrs. M.'s puttering sounds drifted off into nothingness and the edges of my vision blurred. There was a warm mug of something between my hands and a soft voice telling me I should drink some. It tasted heavy and just a little sweet. Comfort in a cup. I hadn't had warm milk and honey in a very long time. I don't think Sammy's ever had any. Somewhere in the foggy recesses of my sleep deprived mind the thought registered that I hoped she'd make some for him while we were here so he would have that too. He's never really had normal before and I wish he could grow up the way I did for a little while, with a mom and a dad and all the 'white picket fence' trappings. I can protect him from a lot, but I can't protect him from the ugly in our lives.

I sipped away quietly lost in my own exhausted thoughts. I felt like an old man and a lost child stuck in a ten year old boy's body. So tired… I actually wanted to cry until a scratching sound caught my attention. It wasn't the scary 'there's something in the walls' scratching I'm used to. More like something lightly rubbing across the floor. Footsteps? Curious, I looked over at the stairwell where the sound came from. That's when I first saw her. There she was in the stairwell: a flaxen haired golden child with charcoal eyes in a long white nightie that was so long only the tips of her toes poked out from beneath it. I'd seen her before in my dreams, although not in quite some time. She smiled knowingly when our eyes met and her sweet little giggle reached me just as Mrs M's gentle voice did. "Annie sweetheart, go on back to bed. You'll have plenty of time to play with the boys in the morning." Without a word she turned and raced back up the steps to her room. Then dad came down the steps and sleep came at last.

I woke the next morning near noon-time to Annie's charcoal eyes hovering inches above mine and that silky flaxen hair tickling my cheeks. Then I blinked and she was gone. I could hear Sammy playing quietly somewhere on the floor nearby and another small unfamiliar voice with him. I rolled over to see who the voice belonged to and saw a small boy with bleach blond hair sitting with Sammy, the both of them laughing as if they'd known each other forever. For a moment all seemed right with the world, almost as if we were suddenly 'normal' (whatever that is) I didn't want to move and break the moment.

Then there was the sound of dad's heavy footsteps in the hall and I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. One look at my wrinkled t-shirt and sleep tousled hair and he smiled warmly at me. "I was wondering when you'd be waking up. It's been a long time since I've seen you sleep so soundly." I could have made a crack at a joke like I usually do to lighten the moment but I didn't. Just this once I would savor the moment and pretend that I'm normal.

Annie was dancing in a little circle of sunlight by the window humming softly to herself. I stared openly, completely captivated. Dad tousled my hair a little more with both his large strong hands in an uncharacteristic open show of affection. "Alright boys, lunchtime! Mrs. Morgan spent the morning preparing a small feast and I doubt you want to miss it. So up and dressed Dean and go wash up Sammy. I want to see you both downstairs in five." It was an order but it didn't sound like one for once. Nevertheless there was a 'Yes sir" from both of us as he left the room with a smile on his face and the two Morgan kids in tow. There was something different in the air around this place; something good… at least it _felt _good. I didn't know why we were here. Normally not knowing would have scared me, because not knowing means that I can't be prepared to protect Sammy if and when things get ugly. Dad looks happy though, and oddly relaxed, so I trust that and just go with it.

Over the next week a peaceful feeling instilled itself within me and grew. If dad was doing any research I didn't see it. He definitely wasn't working nights, I could hear his deep rumbling snore when I woke up in the middle of the night for Sammy. The sound is comforting to both of us, it tells us we're not alone. When dad is working a job he's out all night and sleeps a few hours every morning before getting up and teaching us what he's doing. There isn't any of that here. Sammy and I spend most of our time playing for a change, well a change for me anyway. In the house, outside and all over the yard and neighborhood we run wild with the Morgan kids.

Annie is eight. She has two brothers, Jack who is a teenager and Peter who is six just like Sammy. Jack spends most of his time out with his friends and hiding out in his room listening to loud rock music that I really like. Annie showed me how she sneaks into the attic and sits above his room. There you can hear the music so clearly its like you're sitting right next to the radio. Peter and Sammy spend most of their time together playing cars and building with blocks or in the sandbox in the backyard. Mostly Annie and I play nearby where I can keep an eye on him but sometimes dad sits down close by and tells me to 'go and have fun' which means I don't have to take care of Sammy because he will.

She's beautiful. It's the first thought I have whenever I look at her. She's always laughing too. Seeing how happy she is makes me happy so we both laugh almost all the time. I'd like to think she follows me around, like Sammy does, but really I'm the one following her wherever she wants to go whenever I can. Climbing trees, swimming, talking, making jokes and playing pretend… she even had me dancing with her. It was something slow that she said her dad taught her when she was Sammy and Peter's age. He used to have her stand on his feet and then he'd dance around the room with her standing on his toes. After just four or five days it felt as if we'd always been there, and I as stupid as it was I started to hope we'd never leave. Deep down I knew we would have to and that the best I could hope for was that we would come through this way again some day. Right then though, the place was a dream come to life and I wanted to keep it alive as long as I could.

One night, about a week after we'd arrived Dad came to get me after Sammy had gone to sleep. It was just late enough for the sky to be dark, the stars just beginning to shine. The darkness didn't quite touch the horizon yet. Dad said it reminded him of me. Even though we're constantly surrounded by darkness within this life we lead, deep down my flame keeps burning. Embarrassed at the emotion, I was secretly pleased that he'd thought of me that much. I kept quiet about it though. Sometimes not saying anything at all is better than opening your mouth and ruining the moment.

"Listen Dean, we're going to have to leave here soon." Dad was never one to beat around the bush. He was direct to a fault when he had something to say. "Why do we have to go dad?" I asked, trying to hide the hurt and disappointment. I apparently failed because he put a hand on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. "Listen son, there's something I need to tell you… something to do with that thing that took your mother from us." He took a deep breath and looked around him as if searching for something. Maybe he was searching for the words to say what needed to be said… I don't know. But when he spoke again he was all business, the man he had been this past week was just a memory again. "Son that evil thing that killed your mom, I think it's hunting us just as surely as we are it. That's one of the reasons we can't stay in one place for real long, that's why we keep moving and cover our tracks as we go. That's why we leave before first light tomorrow. Now, I know how close you and Sammy are with Annie and Peter… and I know that'll make leaving this time all that much harder…but it's better for them that we go now before something happens to them. Something bad like what happened to your mom."

I couldn't speak, couldn't move. I wanted to shout at him, scream that he was being unfair. I wanted to tell him to go to hell because Sammy deserved to have warm milk and honey before bed every night. I wanted to beg him to let us stay until we had grown up. I wanted to run far and fast so I could hide and pretend that none of this was happening. I wanted to do all those things and so much more but deep down I knew what dad said was true. There was no normal for us. Well, there was, but it wasn't really normal by anyone's standards but ours. I knew that if we stayed the Morgans would get hurt. I knew that if we stayed Annie would end up losing the happy, carefree life that came only from her innocence that she had shared with me over the past week.

No matter how badly I want to stay right now I know we have to go. I couldn't do that to her, I loved her too much to ruin her life. I couldn't take from her what Sammy and I had never really had but always wanted.

Dad's big strong hand was on my shoulder again. When the tear rolled down my cheek the hand stilled and he sat next to me and pulled me into the crook of his arm holding me close by his side. "It's for the best son." I nodded through my tears. I know it is but it doesn't make it hurt any less. If anything it hurts that much more.

I have to be strong again. I have to hide this pain I'm feeling because if I don't… this time I'll be the one who breaks. I don't know that I can put the pieces back together like I saw dad do and that scares me more than leaving here does. So I wipe my tears away with my sleeve and take a deep breath that sounds a lot more like a long sniffle. Dad watches me carefully and smiles sadly as he sees me square my shoulders, ready to face it all head on. "That's my boy." He says to me, his voice thick though I'm not sure why. "Go on and pack up yours and Sammy's stuff and get to sleep. You'll need your rest. We've got a long drive tomorrow and you've never slept very well in the car." Without a word I get up from where I sit and run into the house at full tilt as if I can run fast enough to escape the reality that dad's words just brought home to me.

Reality hit me head on when I reached the bedroom though. Sammy was fast asleep in the bed, hogging all the covers as usual and snoring peacefully in his sleep. Tomorrow morning dad would probably lift him out of the bed still sleeping and bring him out to the car. He'd wake up on the road sometime just after dawn and wonder where he was, maybe cry a little because he didn't get to say goodbye and then be okay by lunch because 'Dad and Dean' were there and he was safe.

So I walked around the room, picking up Sammy's toys and our clothes and tossing them into a pile to the rhythm of his snoring. I could smell coffee brewing downstairs in the kitchen and saw in my minds' eye dad sitting at the table and telling his friends he'd be leaving before first light. Maybe they already knew.

I have no idea who the Morgans are to dad or why we came here in the first place. It wasn't a layover between jobs. Layovers were for planning and learning. They were the time that dad took to teach us what we needed to know to stay safe on the next go 'round. There had been none of that here. Maybe I should have asked him why we're here, and who the Morgans are. Maybe… but I don't want to. I don't want to know why we came here. I'd rather just have the memory and keep it safe in my heart with the few I have left of life before mom went away.

Fifteen minutes and our clothes are rolled up, the toys tucked away inside them. There were a few small things missing but I knew where they all were. A quick scavenger hunt around the house and everything's ready to go in the morning. I know I'll regret it tomorrow if I don't get some sleep. I know this and yet here I am lying awake, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling thinking of Annie, of Peter and Sammy, of Mrs. Morgans' soft voice and warm sweet milk, and of all the wonderful moments I've had while we were here. It's worse I think than losing mom. When we lost her we knew she was gone and would never come back. I'll always know that Annie is here and know that I can't come back.

The adults are in the kitchen, I can hear the sound of their voices drifting up the stairs and through the open bedroom door. Like a radio that's on in another room, the voices are muted and the words are indistinguishable. The sound itself is comforting though, even though I'll never hear it again. Squeezing my eyes shut to ward off the tears I concentrate on that sound and try to remember all of the happy moments we've all shared in the past week. Through them all there is a beautiful, pixie like, golden child: my Annie. Somehow I start to drift into sleep as the angel dances in a ray of sunlight behind my eyes.

There is no peace in sleep for me tonight. I dream ugly in bright bold colors. Things I'd rather forget and things I won't remember when I wake. They leave me feeling cold and empty inside. I hate being scared. Sammy's tears wake me sometime before midnight like clockwork and I sit up suddenly. I'm not sure if it was the dreams, or Sammy's crying, or something else but… something just feels _wrong_.

First thing is I check on Sammy. It's a good night for him tonight because he's just crying in his sleep. The nightmares only wake him when they're really bad. So rubbing his back gently to reassure him I listen to his breathing as he drifts into happier dreams. As he quiets so does my breathing and the night sounds of the house fill the space that is left as we settle. I listen for Dad's snoring but the rumble isn't there. In fact, none of the comforting noises that I've grown used can be heard. What the heck is going on?

Do I get up and investigate? Do I lie here and wait to see if there's anything sinister to this silence? I wish I knew if Dad was in the house. He'd know what to do. If he were here I wouldn't be lying here in a near panic because the house is too quiet. Then, just as I'm about to give in to my fear and start to cry; I hear the sound of light footfall coming up the stairs. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, heightening my already over-sensitive senses. I shift into work mode.

I'm up out of bed and by the door before the footsteps even reach the top of the stairs. Dad would be proud, I didn't make a sound. I want to get a good look at who or what is coming towards us _before_ I wake up Sammy and we hide or go find Dad. Maybe it'll be a false alarm… maybe my gut instinct will be wrong… maybe this is just fear and hurt talking… yeah right, and maybe I'll look outside the window and see pigs flying.

Our duffel bag is next to the door with me and I reached in for the little dental mirror I lifted the last time Dad took Sammy in to get his teeth cleaned. I didn't take it just because I like shiny objects.

I lay down on my stomach parallel to the wall and slowly inched the mirror end into the hallway at the base of the doorjamb. I don't know what I was expecting to see, but Annie sure wasn't it. She was tiptoeing toward the room looking a lot like Sylvester trying to sneak his way to Tweety in the cartoons. Something was up, that much was for sure. I did what any self respecting boy would do when he comes upon a girl up to no good that he hadn't thought of first. I stepped out the door and directly into her path, startling her so that she nearly fell over. I wanted in on it, whatever 'it' was that she was up to.

When she saw it was me she jumped on me and squeezed me tightly in a bear hug. She held me as if her life depended on her not letting go. My first instinct was to hold her close to reassure her, the big brother in me I guess. As I held her close I breathed in her soft scent of shampoo and baby powder and the sharp tang of fear. I stepped back and held her at arms length "What is it Annie?" I asked and only then noticed how wide and scared her eyes really were. This was no ordinary 'I-had-a-nightmare-and-need-a-hug' look. This was the 'oh shit' look that comes when something really bad either has or will happen. Instead of saying anything though she just shook her head and wrapped her arms around me again, tears spilling down her cheeks and soaking into my rumpled t-shirt.

I pulled her into the bedroom and out of sight- just in case. Running a hand gently through her hair and holding her close with the other I tried to comfort her and stem the tears that were now flowing freely down her cheeks, tried to get her to tell me what was going on. It took awhile until she finally sniffled loudly and took a deep breath looking me in the eye. "It's Jack, Dean… Jack's in trouble and I think your dad is with him." "What? What! What do you mean Jack… and Dad?" everything I could remember seeing and hearing Jack do in the last week suddenly started rushing through my mind to be inspected thoroughly as I tried to make sense of what she had said. How the heck were Jack and Dad connected?

The whole thing just came rushing out of her. She'd stayed up, waiting until her parents and Dad were asleep. She'd wanted to stay up late and have an adventure. (If only she knew… my whole life is an adventure) When she was sure everyone was asleep she snuck down the hall to wake me up. She was really startled when Jack's bedroom light suddenly came on and had to duck behind the bathroom door to avoid being caught when he came out. She apparently wasn't the only one sneaking around tonight. Through the crack of the door she watched Jack shut off his light and head down the stairs. It wasn't an unusual occurrence; he often went across the street to his best friends house at all hours of the day and night. Just when she thought the coast was clear though, Dad's light came on. She got scared that she'd be caught sneaking around and didn't dare move from her hiding spot. Dad followed Jack's path down to the last step. Now, Annie is probably the most curious person I've ever met. She has questions about everything and finds answers for almost all of them. (she'll probably be a reporter or an investigator when she grows up or something) Anyway, she wanted to know what Jack and Dad were up to so she shadowed them. "Jack didn't go across the street, he went toward the park. He took candles with him, and your Dad took the salt from the kitchen cupboard. Why on earth would they take such strange things to the park Dean?" Then she told me how dad stopped by the car and took a rifle out of the trunk. That's what got her scared. All of the pieces fit perfectly. I'd seen dad leave like that before and I knew what he was up to. He wasn't on a hunt, not the usual kind anyway.

Jack was probably playing with the dark arts. (playing around with summoning spells or ouija boards. Dangerous crap that punk teenagers like to mess with to freak out their friends because they believe that it's just made up) If Jack was one of those kids, or hanging out with a group like that then Dad was going to do one of two things. Either he was going to scare the crap out of them so they would never touch the stuff again… (I'd seen him do it before. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Kids running everywhere and screaming at the top of their lungs… All because of a little smoke and mirror parlor tricks. Damn, if they saw half the stuff Sammy'n I have…) or Jack and his friends were walking into trouble and didn't know it and Dad was following them to protect them and destroy whatever it was that they unleashed, accidentally or not. If he was going to protect them, which was my guess since he brought the rifle and the salt, then he'd probably end up doing both. Either way it would be one hell of a show.

I didn't want to tell Annie any of this of course, she'd want to go and see… if she believed me and I seriously doubted she would. That would be taking away from her something precious that I didn't want her to lose: her innocence. Plus I'd be breaking the family rule: tell no one what we do. "Dad probably heard Jack planning something dangerous with his buddies or something and went along to scare them into not doing it." It was a reasonable explanation… sort of. I mean, that kind of thing happened often enough on TV, so maybe it happened in real life sometimes too. Ah, who am I kidding? It sounded really weak even as I suggested it and I doubted she would buy into it.

Maybe it was something in my voice or the way that I looked at her… I'll never know for sure. She looked at me skeptically for what seemed like forever with that gleam in her eye that said she would argue you 'till her face turned blue because she thought you were wrong. I was sure I was in for a long one, trying to convince her there wasn't anything to worry about. She actually smiled as she watched me square my shoulders, ready to counter whatever argument she might have. Instead of punching holes into my weak explanation and begging me to come with her and check it out though, she just shrugged and smiled. "Whatever they're up to Jack's in good hands. Your dad's a good man" I swear my jaw fell straight down to my toes. The trust that she must have had in me to just let it go like that… it still blows my mind.

She turned when she heard Sammy toss around in his sleep. Moving to the other side of the bed she gently brushed the hair away from his forehead. A small smile curled the delicate corners of his small mouth and he relaxed into calmer dreams. "He doesn't usually settle so quickly" I said, amazed that he hadn't jumped up screaming from the nightmare still clear in his mind, like he usually does.

I felt as though I was being torn apart from the inside. Part of me wanted to run after Dad and do what I could to help. Part of me wanted to stay right here and watch over Sammy like Dad tells me to. Even as both those parts fought each other within me a quiet calm stole over me and suddenly all I wanted in the world was to stay right there with Annie. If Dad had needed help or wanted back-up he would have left Sammy with Pastor Jim and taken me along with him instead of coming here with us. No, there was another agenda and it was something he didn't want me involved in. Right now there was only Annie, and if these were to be the last stolen moments before I left then I would spend every last one of them with her. With any luck she'll remember me as fondly as I will her.

So I pulled out my comic books and my walkman, took her by the hand and led her to the big bay window seat. We sat there, ear to ear, listening to Metallica and sharing whispered conversations over comic book heroes and their adventures. The thought of telling her I would be leaving in the morning never once crossed my mind. It would have tainted the time we had left with sadness and there was enough of that in my life already. I didn't want her to be sad, she was meant to be happy.

We debated the merits of Superman's powers over Wonder Womans and Spidermans. She wove tales of the things we would do in the morning, next week, next year and when we grew up. Just for a little while I wanted to believe that those things would really happen. I wanted to build that fort in the backyard with her, be in her class at school, become the high school jock and her my cheerleader girlfriend. I wanted us to grow up together and fall in love with each other. Her favorite story was the one where we would grow up and old together in that same house with the white picket fence. Our parents would watch us grow up, and then we would watch our own children and family grow and have children and families of their own. I think this is what mom would have wanted for me, for Sammy too. He'd probably be more of a book geek that a jock though.

We lost track of time sitting there by the window. Completely wrapped up together in the huge comfy blanket, our dreams, and each other; what seemed like minutes were actually hours, gone by in no time at all. Two a.m. came quickly in a burst of loud noise and bright lights. It started with the loud bang of the screen door being pushed in as Dad burst through it yelling and carrying an unconscious Jack in his arms. He sounded like he was yelling for help So I ran towards his voice, Annie close behind me. I made it halfway down the hall and Dad was already at the top of the stairs. Jack was really pale and covered in blood. His own or something else's I couldn't tell. Immediately I turned to Annie, trying to shield her from the sight. Jack would be fine, she didn't need to see him like that. She'd never be the same again.

I'd managed to move her back into the room again "Annie, you don't want to see him like that, let Dad clean him up a bit before you go check on him." I reasoned with her. I should have known better. There is no reasoning with Annie once she's made up her mind. The second I let go of her hand she rushed past me and right out the door. I turned and ran after her "Annie no!" She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw them.

Dad had taken Jack into the bathroom. He had a large circular bite mark on one of his shoulders and scratches all over his face. He looked terrible. Annie was frozen by the sight. Mr and Mrs Morgan materialized seemingly out of nowhere. Suddenly all the lights in the house were blazing, the younger boys were awake and bawling, the adults were all talking at once. It was chaos. Then Dad eyes met mine and for us everything just stopped, as time itself froze. He nodded once which was his signal that everything was okay and I went into 'work mode' I guess you could call it. This was my part to play.

I took Annie's hand again and whispered to her that Jack was alive and that he would be fine now that he was home. Sammy and Peter needed us now. I could tell she wasn't sure whether she could trust what I was saying and that she was really scared but she followed me without question when I led the way to Peter's room and from there we were a team effort.

Annie carried Peter across the hall from his room to the one Sammy was in as I physically shielded them both from the almost carnal sight the bathroom had become. As soon as the boys set eyes on each other they grabbed on and held tight, teddy bears and all. "Where's Daddy?" Sammy asked me and was immediately reassured by the sound of dad's voice across the hall. Now Sam was comforting Peter. Before long they were both out cold again cuddled in a tangle of cartoon character sheets and stuffed animals.

By the time Annie and I went back to the bathroom Jack had been cleaned up and his wounds had been covered up. Dad had him awake, sipping strong coffee and talking to keep him that way. Mr Morgan was listening quietly, the expression on his face as hard as stone. Whatever it was that Jack was saying it was obvious that Mr. Morgan didn't like the sound of it at all.

"Annie sweetheart, your mom is waiting for you and Dean downstairs. She's got warm milk and cookies for you before you go back to bed." Dad's voice was hoarse and worn as always on nights like these. It didn't do much for Annie's peace of mind. She looked to her dad for reassurance, then glanced over at me. She didn't move a muscle until she saw me smile at her. Kissing her brother on his undamaged cheek she told him she was happy he was okay. He ruffled her hair affectionately and sent her on her way. She stopped at the door "Are you coming down too Dean?" "I'll be down in a sec Annie" and she was gone, down the stairs to the waiting arms of her mom.

I wanted to ask what had happened, wanted to know what it was that had taken a chunk out of Jacks shoulder. I didn't know if I could though. I mean it's one thing to ask those questions in front of Dad's hunting buddies. It's another entirely to ask it in front of virtual strangers to our family trade. Then I was startled to hear Jack say something about the largest dog he'd ever seen, and that it reminded him of a wolf. "Was it a werewolf John?" Mr. Morgan asked nervously, eyeing the now bandaged site of the bite mark on Jack's shoulder. "As far as I could tell it was just a real angry dog that Jack's buddies had pissed off. Even if it had been a werewolf, that little love bite on Jack's arm is nothing to worry about. That dog's drawn its last breath. I wasn't taking any chances." I could actually feel Mr. M's relief from where I stood in the doorway.

Apparently everything important had been already said because Mr Morgan left then to look in on Annie and Mrs. Morgan. "You did good tonight Dean, real good. I'm proud of you son." And dad followed Mr Morgan.

"Hey dude, you wanna give me a hand down the stairs? I'm still a little weak and I'm craving some warm milk too." _Jack_ wanted _my _help? He'd barely said two words to me in an entire week and now he wanted my help? Well, I wasn't going to say no. Sure, of course I'll help! "Thanks for taking care of them tonight Dean." I didn't know what to say to that.

I don't remember helping him down the stairs but I do remember the warm heavy feeling of the warm milk and honey in my belly as we all sat around the kitchen table afterward. There was no talk of leaving in the morning, though I wasn't fooled into thinking that those plans had been changed. It felt like I was home and the only person missing was mom and even she was there really. She's always there, if only in our hearts.

Annie refused to go up to her room to bed. Well actually she refused to let me out of her sight. We wound up curling up by the window again in the same comfy blanket. I remember sitting down. I remember her laying her head on my shoulder as we sat side by side, and linking our hands together. We fell asleep there watching the stars twinkle lazily above. I'd like to believe that she was asleep before I was. Her eyes were closed, her breath and heartbeat had grown slow and steady. The truth is I _know _she wasn't. As I drifted off to sleep I heard her whisper softly that she loved me. I slept peacefully for once, dreaming the fairy tale/comic book hero type dreams that all kids are supposed to have. The kind that have happy endings with ever-afters where the bad guys never win and the good guys get the girl in the end. Even in my dreams she was right there by my side.

I woke awhile later like I always do when the sky begins to get lighter just before night becomes dawn. I could hear Dad moving around in the other room, packing up and getting ready to load up the car. Our duffel bag was already gone from its spot by the door, my comics and walkman gone with it. Had Dad slept at all? Probably not… and if he had it wouldn't have been enough to matter.

In sleep I had shifted into the corner of the bench where the wall met the window. Annie had shifted with me and half-lay cuddled against me with her head resting on my shoulder and her arms were wrapped around my waist. I sighed deeply against the bittersweet feeling of contentment as I held her close. Wanting to lie there forever I enjoyed the warm weight of her against me. I stayed there watching the sky grow brighter as the world outside our window slowly started to wake up. Our departure loomed there… over the horizon with the dawning light.

Then Dad was in the doorway, motioning for me to come downstairs with him. I had no choice but to get up and face reality. I slipped carefully out of the blanket, gently easing Annie to a lying position without waking her. Dad was waiting for me downstairs and I should have been on my way down but I couldn't resist one last look. I smoothed a stray strand of gold away from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. She smiled her sweet smile in her sleep. I think I actually heard the sound of my heart breaking. Slowly I turned and walked away… from my dreams, from love, from the very future I've always wanted and would never know. I never looked back. If I had it might have killed me.

Mrs. M fed me the best oatmeal I'd ever tasted as Dad loaded up the car with the last of our stuff. Though Sammy, Peter and Annie were still fast asleep, the rest of us were all awake and quietly moving about the house preparing for the impending departure. Mr Morgan was in the yard, trying to convince Dad to stay. I shook my head at the uselessness of it. Once Dad made up his mind nothing short of death would change it for him.

Jack sat down to breakfast with me and his mom. He thanked me for taking care of Annie and Peter for him earlier when he couldn't. "Sammy's lucky to have you and Annie will be too." (Will be? What did he mean 'will be'? I was never going to see her again.) "Jack's right Dean. John and Sam are lucky to have you." Mrs Morgan told me, a tear streaking down her cheek. (_She_ knew we wouldn't be back) "You just remember sweetheart that while you take care of them, it's okay to let them take care of you too." It was said teasingly, but the thickness in her voice betrayed the emotion behind the advice. How could I tell her that I couldn't let them see that I needed them too? I've been the glue almost longer than I can remember. Dad can't do what he does, hunt things and save people, if he's constantly worrying about Sammy and me. How could I put that into words when she must have seen it for herself in the last few hours? There were no words.

"Sure Mrs. M. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She hugged me tight and almost ran out of the room. I could hear her crying quietly somewhere out back.

Jack stood up and stretched gingerly around his bandages, probably ready head upstairs to bed. I hoped they'd all be asleep before we left. I didn't want a big production that might make me cry. He started toward the stairs, but stopped and put a steady hand on my shoulder as he passed me. "I hope that one day I'll become half the man you already are." His voice was low and he patted my shoulder before he left the room too. I wasn't really sure what he meant by it, but it made me feel really good. Proud to be me. I'd never felt that way before, it was just another one of the gifts I received while staying at the little picket fenced white house.

I hid in the bathroom while Dad said his goodbyes. I've never been very good at those and anyway I couldn't handle it this time. I had enough to deal with just in leaving. I can deal with just about anything this twisted life can throw at me, but I'm not strong enough to take that heartache. Not when so much of my heart was invested here. Not when I knew we would never be back. It was just too much.

I heard Dad come upstairs to get Sammy and then watched from the window as he settled him in the backseat. Mrs. M. fussed over him making sure he was strapped in safely and tucked in tight with blankets, still fast asleep. She put his bear on the seat next to him where he could find it and kissed the top of his head. There were hugs all around. Dad, the Morgans… Everyone had tears glistening in their eyes. Not a one fell.

Jack was knocking at the bathroom door. "Your dad says time to go Dean." "'Kay, I'll be right there." There was no more hiding from it. The moment had arrived. Right thing to do or not, I still didn't want to. But I did. Dawn was here and it was time to move on.

Hours later we crossed the state line into Kansas. Sammy was reading quietly while I watched the landscape go by outside my window.

"When this is all over, we'll go back there to stay." He said it softly so Sammy wouldn't hear him, but I did. I knew he was worried about me, and he was trying to give me hope for a life better than this one day. It didn't matter. I could have all the hope in the world for those things, but the truth is that I'm not meant for that kind of life. No matter how much I wanted it. No matter how much I still want it. There would always be bad things out there, and people would always need to be protected from them. As long as I know they're out there and I can do something about it… How can I turn my back on that? How can I choose not to hunt these things down and save lives? Who would stop them from killing again?

I slammed the door shut to the little piece of my heart where Annie would always be and bolted it securely shut. She would grow up into a beautiful woman one day and live out all the dreams we'd shared. She'd do it with a man who deserved her and would keep her safe and happy all of her life. Every once in a while she'd remember the boy who had touched her heart, shared her dreams and disappeared overnight.

Me? I'll hang on to the memories, keeping them buried deep where no one will ever see them but me. Every once in a while I'll drag them out when I'm alone and it's safe to. She'll keep me sane through life and never even know it.


	2. Chapter 2 Revelation

_**Revelation**_

_Sam looked up from the book he'd been reading from. The book itself was a unremarkable, about the size of a paperback novel and bound in soft brown leather. It was the words he'd just read that had shocked him into the look he now wore as his eyes met Dean's across the room from him. Dean of course turned away, intent on avoiding an emotional scene as usual. _

"_I don't remember any of it. I mean… you've been carrying this around all this time?" The thought of the obvious pain his older brother had suffered, probably still suffered blew Sammy's mind. Dean was the untouchable one, the protector, the family rock. _

"_So that's what the dream was about then?" he asked Dean, who was still wiping unshed tears from his eyes. "Yeah, well… Let's just not make a bit deal about it, okay? I'm fine." Sam looked at him skeptically, obviously not buying it. "Unh-huh I can see that." "We're not going to have another go at the touchy-feely chic-flick stuff are we? 'Cause you know, I'm really not in the mood for it right now Sammy." Dean was irritated at his momentary lapse of weakness and Sam wanted to help, which just irritated him more. Dying had been easier than this. _

"_Dean?" Sam hesitated. "What is it Sam?" He asked wearily, suddenly very tired. "We, um… we could go back." It was an innocent suggestion, and he'd meant well but Dean would have none of it. "I can't do that Sam. I won't. Ever." The discussion was over. Dean sauntered moodily to the bathroom to shower before hitting the road again. Sam just stared after him, puzzled by this new side emerging from his brother that he'd never known existed. _

_There was a good reason why Dean would never go back there again. He relived it as salty tears fell from his cheeks, silently blending with the shower water. First there had been the newspaper article a few days after they'd left the Morgan's. It had made front page in six different states. It was being considered a murder-suicide. He had known better. The night they had died had been a full moon. The werewolf that their dad had killed hadn't been the one that had bitten Jack. Jack had begun to change, or maybe already had changed. It didn't take a genius to know that he or the other wolf had attacked the rest of the family. Silver bullets had been left with Mr. Morgan with instructions, just in case. Apparently they had needed them. _

_Sam read the next entry in Dean's journal before putting it back in his bag for him. _

"Dad and I went back there one last time. We left Sammy with Pastor Jim and took nothing but ourselves, the shotguns, and our entire arsenal of silver bullets. It took almost an entire week to smoke out the bastard, but we found him. His pack was ten strong, but we'd had surprise on our side. Not one of them lived to see the light of dawn. I was the right thing to do, I know it was. I guess I just thought I'd feel better once it was done. All I can think of is that she's gone, they all are. I wish they weren't. I'll never be the same again.

Thinking about what happened to them… what it makes me feel is too scary to put into words. One thing's for sure though, God help the s.o.b. that tries to take away Dad or Sammy. I won't let them do it and if by some freak twist of fate they succeed I won't be held responsible for my actions. They're all I have. Without them…well, there is no 'without them'."

_The page had several tiny smudges here and there that Sam was positive had to be tear stains. So they were gone then, the whole family. Now Dean was having dreams about them after all this time. Or had he been having them all along? Sam would never know. _

_Dean took a good while longer than he usually did in the bathroom. When he finally emerged he seemed to be feeling a lot better if still a little subdued. They packed up the car and hit the road in silence. Sam understood. He fished out one of the tapes from the box on the backseat and soon AC/DC was blaring and Dean began to relax. _

"_Hey Sam? I'm thinking breakfast. There's this diner about an hour from here, just off the interstate. The food is pretty good, and the waitresses… let me just say they make the hour's wait worth it." Sam smiled, Dean would be just fine._

_**Dealing with it/ Keeping up Appearances**_

_I woke up today in… hell, I don't even really know where I was anymore. I had the dream again. Damn near made me look like a wuss in front of Sammy too. What the hell is it with this family and dreaming anyway? I just don't know…_

_I must have screamed at some point because Sammy had been trying to wake me up. He said he'd been trying for awhile. Must have been that part after she died. That's where the werewolves usually come in. It ended like it always does, with the werewolf on top of me and Dad prying it off and praying out loud that I hadn't been bitten or killed. I was still slashing away at it, covered in its blood, as I lay there on the ground. I woke up with Sammy on the business end of the knife I keep under my pillow at night. Ironically it's the same one Dad gave me to use that day._

_I haven't dreamed about her, or any of it in so long… It's been sixteen years already since… God, sixteen years almost to the day. I wonder what she would have looked like all grown up. I wonder if she would have managed to keep the innocence through life. She was stubborn, good Lord but she was stubborn. Now that was a trait she would have kept throughout the years. I shudder to think what our kids would have turned out like. Her stubbornness and curiosity, my temper and 'act first, ask questions later' attitude… Well it doesn't really matter now, does it? She's gone, and she's never coming back. Even if she were still alive… well, that's a decision that was made for me a long, long time ago. Wasn't it?_

_Anyway, after having to fight me and the knife off like that Sammy wasn't exactly going to let me off the hook. I really wasn't in any shape to say anything about it, so I didn't. I pulled out my journal and gave it to him to read. Aright, I opened it to the entry I wanted him to read. I sure as hell don't want him reading any of the rest of it. I could barely look at him while he sat there reading it. That expressive face of his'll be my undoing one of these damned days. I don't know which was worse: the surprise as he started reading, the goofy happy look he had when he was reading about her and I, or the incredible sadness at the end. Thank God he didn't get to the next entry, the one about her death. He'd probably have had me crying with those puppy dog eyes of his. Stupid touchy-feely chic-flick crap. Normally I can just let it go… not her. Never her._

_Cassie reminds me an awful lot of her There's not much difference between the two really. Well, maybe there's a little less of the innocence in Cassie and a lot more of the stubbornness and curiosity. God the woman can argue. I love arguing with her almost as much as I love making up afterwards. I've caught myself starting an argument once or twice (or more) just to see her get upset. It's a thing of beauty the way her eyes flash and her skin becomes flushed. If things were different … Well there's not much use hashing that one over either. There's just no future in us. Now matter how much of a hard ass she pretends to be with all that attitude, try as I might I just can't picture her hunting. The things we see… Christ, some of it even makes _me_ sick. Over time the life would break her. She needs hope, stability. There's not much of either in this line of work._

_So I haven't really been myself today, though I've been trying hard to keep up appearances for Sammy. I think he's bought it so far… well except for the fact that I keep staring off into space without realizing it. It happened at the diner we went to for breakfast. I didn't even notice Candy come up to the table with our coffees… although how the hell I could have made that little oversight I'm still not really sure. Sammy had to kick me in the shin under the table to snap me out of it. I know that one didn't go unnoticed. I'll be answering questions about it on the road later, or trying hard to avoid the questions when he asks them later. _

_I know he's worried. I would be too if he were to wake up with a knife to my throat after crying and screaming in his sleep. I don't want him to be. I'm the protector here. I've taken care of him since he was a baby, in all the ways Dad couldn't and then some. He's got enough on his plate with the whole psychic thing he's got going on. On top of that losing Jess that way… that really took its toll on him too. _

_I know he's worried because he's the one who suggested going out tonight. Usually he's really uptight about that kind of thing. I mean, he found us something to hunt out in New Hampshire and normally he'd have us driving 'till we got there. Then we'd spend the first day or so getting the facts straight and doing the necessary research. Instead this afternoon he looks over at me from the passenger seat with those puppy-dog eyes and tells me he thinks we should take the night off. 'You know, go out and have some fun like you're always telling me I should' he says. Yeah, sure… now he decides to take my advice. Still, I'll take it if he's up for it. Maybe a night out really will snap me out of my funk. Okay, probably not… but a couple of drinks might help me sleep tonight. Hell, the last thing I need is a repeat of this morning's performance. _

_**A Brother's Prerogative**_

_The roles couldn't be any more reversed. It's scary. I mean, Dean having nightmares? The guy could wake up to a nuclear explosion smiling. I'm not exactly sure why I woke up at three in the morning. Usually it's my own nightmares that do it, but this time I hadn't been dreaming at all. I thought maybe there'd been a sound, maybe something was wrong… but Dean was still sleeping and he's usually the first one to react to stuff like that. He's the lightest sleeper I've ever known. I mean I've seen him jump out of bed at the sound of a towel dropping in the bathroom. So when I looked over to the other bed and he was still lying in it… I didn't know what to think._

_The room was quiet, everything seemed normal. As normal as they ever get anyway. Then I heard the sniffle. I didn't think Dean was capable of sniffling. He has a hard enough time when I get anywhere near emotional. I can honestly say I have never seen him cry. Oh, he's come close a few times. He's got anguish and anger down pat. But cry? Nuh-unh, not Dean._

_I had to see it, I had to be sure. So I snuck across the room as soundlessly as I could, scared I'd wake him before I got close enough to see anything. Sure enough there were tears just pouring out from under closed lids. His pillow was wet with them. I knew he'd probably kill me for doing it, but I couldn't stand seeing him suffer like that so I tried to wake him up. Tried being the operative word here._

_Normally I could wave a hand in front of his face and it would be enough. There was nothing normal about this. I shook his shoulder a little hoping it would be enough and that's when he screamed. I was the freakiest sound I've ever heard. Don't get me wrong, Dean has screamed before. Growing up, especially when we were teenagers, we screamed at each other all the time. On the odd job, when things turned sour, he's screamed for various reasons… This was different. The sound… It was sadness, fear, anger and loss all wrapped up in something between a moan and a wail. Even just thinking about it now… I feel sick about it. But that wasn't all. No, that was just the beginning. Yeah, then he started tossing and turning, fighting off the sheets that covered him. I called his name, shouted at him to wake up, shook him again. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. He pulled his damned knife out. The freaking big one he sleeps with. From that point on I wasn't trying to wake him up anymore, I was fighting for my life. I don't know how long we fought… we tore the room apart in the process. He slept through the whole thing. Reliving something awful. _

_I still don't know what finally woke him. He'd called out to Dad a few times during the fight… I found myself pinned against the wall, Dean's knife at my throat. I couldn't move. All I could think was that this was it. I was going to die. He was going to kill me without even knowing it, and it would destroy him. Through all the years, no matter what happened between us Dean had always filled the big brother role to perfection. I knew I never had to worry because whatever happened he had my back. I was protected. For this to happen… _

_As I gasped for breath, bracing myself for the final feel of the steel cutting through me I said his name one last time. I almost cried with relief when his eyes popped open and realized what he was doing. He looked confused, like he was there but somewhere else too. I know that feeling all too well, of being two places at once when still caught up in the dream. It took him a few to figure out what was here and now. When he finally did, the knife fell to the floor with a clatter that shook the room. He was quiet, too quiet. _

"_Sammy?" God, my confident bad ass brother sounding unsure? This was bad. "Dean?" I didn't dare ask him if he was okay. Nor even what was going on. I wanted to know… He still looked ready to cry though. I didn't want to be the one to make the tears fall. "Ah, hell!" he sighed sounding defeated as he scrubbed at his face with his hands. _

"_Dean?" I hesitated again. "Hmmm?" eyes closed again he still couldn't look at me, just turned and walked across the room and away from me. I thought he was trying to distance himself, pull himself back together. I watched him digging through his duffel, positive he was going to head to the shower and try to forget it had happened at all. I almost fell over when walked back, rifling through the pages in an ancient looking, worn out, leather bound book. His face clouded over when he found what he'd been looking for and handed it to me. Still not saying anything, he nodded at me to read it and sauntered back toward the window. He stood there staring out into space the whole time I read it. He stood stoic, expressionless and unmoving, a statue bathed in the weak morning sunlight just starting to seep through the curtains. I didn't realize 'till then that the fight had lasted hours. _

_Who knew that Dean kept a journal? I would never have guessed. Maybe he started it to try and purge his demons. To say I was shocked as I started reading is an understatement. Ten years old… he'd been ten years old when he fell in love. I should have guessed at something like that. Dean might keep up the solid hero appearance, but I know well enough that when he feels, he feels deep. With Dad, and me… it's why I've always been so surprised at the whole 'girl-of-the-moment' James Bond-ish mentality. I guess I kind of figured it was just one of the ways he kept up appearances. But no, all this time he's been protecting himself… and I guess to some extent the girls he's been with. _

_Reading about Dean being an actual kid… I had to smile. He wanted to be a high-school jock heh heh. Little Annie, she was really something special to turn him around like that. To give him hope. The whole Morgan family… I wish I could remember them. _

_Then the part about the older brother coming home unconscious in Dad's arms… I knew as soon as he mentioned the bite mark that it was a werewolf. Of course Dean would have taken care of all of us. The responsibility fits him like skin, it's what makes him such a great hunter. If we didn't make a difference I don't think he'd do it. He'd just walk away. I thought of Jess a lot when I read about he and Annie falling asleep watching the stars. Are we ever going to have a shot at being happy? Or will this life only leave us room for the scars that we bear? _

_I found myself hoping he'd want to go back and see her as I read the rest. He needs someone like that, someone who'll make him sweet milk and hold him close to help keep the past where it should stay: behind him. I kind of expected the 'no'. If he hadn't been in such bad shape I would have pushed a little. He didn't look like he could take a push though so I let it go… intending to bring it up again later when he felt better. _

_He cried in the shower. I could hear him, though he didn't make much of a sound. There was more to it then he had let me read. There had to be or he wouldn't still be crying. So I did what I knew he would do to me… I read on. Ten years old, he saw the front page articles and found out they had all died. Dad knew what to do… he took him back to finish it. Dean wouldn't have been able to live with himself or let it go unless he had a hand in ending it. To carry that with him… all this time. _

_I thought he'd be fine when we started driving and he suggested the diner, with the waitresses in mind. It didn't take me long to realize that he wasn't. He kept staring off into space looking utterly lost. When the waitress came over and practically offered herself to him with the coffee and he completely ignored her… I had to kick him to bring him back to here and now. Even then he barely noticed anything past his food. Yeah, he's not fooling anyone. I'm definitely worried. _

_Then I found our next lead in a New Hampshire newspaper. A teenager, attacked by a wild animal, had died of his wounds in hospital. I figured it couldn't be… the dream the night before, Dean's history with werewolves. Still, to be thorough I looked into the surrounding area and a little of the history. Sure enough There had been three disappearances over the last month, now the death of that kid. It may be nothing but I'd rather look into it to be sure. Who knows? It may be what Dean needs to purge the dream. _

_So I told him we're going to New Hampshire. He was indifferent. I wasn't surprised. I figure he needs to get out, clear his head… maybe find a way to deal with this. So I threw him and suggested that we take tonight off. Find a bar and some beers… hopefully he'll pick up a girl. I still can't believe he just ignored that waitress… Candy? She was everything he usually goes for. _

_Tomorrow I'll tell him why we're headed north. A little fun, some sleep and with any luck he'll be good old belligerent Dean by morning. I think I'll stick close in case he gets another nightmare though. Just to be safe._


	3. Chapter 3 First Whiff of Wolves

_**First Whiff of Wolves**_

_Why? Why does he even_ try? _I knew something was up when he suggested we get out for some fun tonight instead of diving head first into the next job. It's completely out of character for one, on any given night. Most especially when we've already found something to hunt. I may not be at the top of my game today, but as spaced as I've been I can still tell when Sammy's keeping something from me. _

"_Alright Sam, what is it?"_

"_What do you mean Dean? What's what?"_

"_What're you not telling me?" _

"_I don't know what you're talking about." Hmm, flat out denial._

"_C'mon Sammy… you've got that nervous, nostril flaring, wide-eyed, sweaty look you always have when you're trying to hide something. Don't even bother arguing with me either. I've seen that look often enough to know it."_

"_Whatever man." Still pretending nothing's up, can't even look at me. God he's a terrible liar. He sounds annoyed but it's more about having been caught in the act then my calling_ _him on it. _

"_Dude, I am in_ no _mood to get jerked around today. Just tell me what the hell already and get it over with." All patience gone, I just want to get on with it. "So what's this about? My dream last night?_ Her? _The job you found for us? What?" Still he said nothing, just stared straight ahead clenching and unclenching his jaw and fighting hard not to cave and just blurt it out._

_Calming myself some, I took a deep breath and tried reason. "Listen, I know that at this point after, well… this morning… there's no getting around the emotional crap. Whatever happens we're going to end up having some sort of touchy-feely, chic-flick moment. I'd just rather get it out of the way _now_ so things can get back to normal." Well,_ _apparently that did it. On a sigh, he turned to me and let me have it._

"_You're not going to like it." He warned me. I rolled my eyes, good god could he possibly drag it out anymore than this? "Yeah, so what else is new?" "It's about our next job…" he hesitated, "and about your dream." He didn't finish, tried real hard not to actually. I made it harder not to. _

"_What's that supposed to mean?" "Well… there've been a string of disappearances in New Hampshire. Over the last month or so three teenagers and a couple in their early twenties have gone missing." He took a deep breath before going on. I was completely confused. He looked like he'd rather face the damned demon again, hog tied and helpless, then finish telling me about our next gig. This was not going to be good. "Alright, so some kids go missing out in the woods. What does that have to do with us?" He gave me that anxious puppy look of his. "Sammy?" I hate it when he worries me like this. "A couple of nights ago they found a kid, fifteen years old, lying in a pool of himself in the middle of his own backyard. He'd been ripped to pieces by some kind of wild animal. He never regained consciousness and died in the hospital a few hours later… there was nothing they could do for him. _

_The papers are blaming a pack of wild dogs that have been spotted around the area. State Park officials up in Franconia are pointing fingers at a particularly vicious wolf pack that's been seen around the more popular campsites in the area. They've been caught attacking campers' pets, no humans so far… but the kids that disappeared are all from small towns in and around Franconia." One look at my face and he stopped. _

_I couldn't think, or rather I was thinking so fast that I couldn't keep up with myself. I couldn't breathe. My vision blurred and my ears were buzzing. I pulled the car over roughly, spraying gravel all over and around us as I did and nearly ditching the car in the process. I didn't trust myself to drive. Eyes wide with disbelief I turned to Sammy. "You're not serious. You can't be freaking serious" He shrugged helplessly. "You're serious. You're goddamned serious." Now I couldn't speak either. That was okay though, because even if could have I don't know what I'd say. Of all the papers that he'd searched through… I mean there's a whole freaking country full of evil for us to hunt down and destroy. My kid brother has to stumble on the only pack of werewolves I've heard of in sixteen years. The more I thought about it, the more agitated I got. _

_Sam watched me squirm around in my seat while I tried to figure out how to react. For the first time ever I couldn't stand being in the car. I felt as though I was boxed in, like the Impala was slowly but surely closing in on me. "I need some air." I blurted urgently, not even bothering to look at him. I just yanked the door open and literally jumped out of the car. I didn't even realize that I was running until I started to gasp for air, and then I just stopped and dropped to the ground sitting awkwardly in the grass between the highway from and drainage ditch. Head between my knees and trying to catch my breath I was sure I was going to be sick. The memories, the ones I hadn't written about, were threatening to take me over. I didn't want them. I wouldn't let them. I had to make them stop. I was hot, wet and uncomfortable with sweat. Not caring what happened to it I yanked the leather jacket off of me and tossed it aside to land wherever the hell it wanted to. Hugging my knees to my cheeks I just sat there and fought myself._

_I felt Sammy sit down next to me. He didn't say a word. Didn't even look at me. Just sat there and let me have the time I needed to suck it up and get it together. I have the best brother in the universe… and don't you_ ever _tell him I said so. It might go to that already huge, pretty boy head of his._

_As soon as I'd reached some semblance of control I told him what I knew had to be done. "We have to head out tonight. A couple of hours at a motel to mold as many silver bullets as possible and to get some rest. Tomorrow morning we hit Franconia." "Dean… are you sure? I still think you could use a night…" I cut him off "Sam. The longer we wait the more people disappear. The more people disappear the larger the pack gets. You said five people are missing so far? Probably two or three more from the original pack. That's already eight at least. I don't want those numbers getting any higher. No one else gets hurt if I can help it." It was settled. We left then and there. I never looked back. Well, not intentionally anyway…_

_Sam has this thing about my unfinished emotional business. Whenever he finds out I have some he pesters me until I face it and deal with it. First it was Cassie, then the Shtriga and now this. Apparently it's his new hobby. His little way of amusing himself. Maybe it's payback for the Nair… All I know is that it's really, really annoying. Sometimes it would be nice to just let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. No pun intended. Okay, a _little_ pun intended._

_So Sammy had this brain fart of an idea while we were driving up to Franconia. "I know it's been sixteen years and all, but we should see if the house was ever re-sold. If it's still in the Morgan family and it's not in too terrible a shape we could stay there. Maybe give the credit cards a rest for a while." Sure, that's a _wonderful _idea. I _really _want to sleep in the house where my ghosts wander and my nightmares are set. Let's get right on that. Well Sammy, in his infinite wisdom, decides to ignore the sarcasm and look up the current ownership on the house anyway. Take a wild guess where we're going to be staying while we're there? I'll give you a hint: there's a little white picket fence in the yard. _

_Apparently one of the Morgans survived it all. As relieved as I am to hear it I still don't necessarily want to meet whoever it is. We've caused them so much pain already that I doubt they'll be interested in catching up on old times. I mean, what the heck am I going to say? "Hi! It's Dean. Remember me? Yeah, my dad and I are the ones who are personally responsible for the deaths of the rest of your family sixteen years ago." I can see _that _going over real well. But does any of that stop Sam? No sir. He even contacted this last surviving family member personally and made the arrangements for us to stay there for as long as it takes. The way he's driving we'll make it before midnight. Don't think I haven't realized that it's about the same time we arrived that night so long ago, because I have. _

_**Fade into darkness**_

_The house looks the same. Same fence, same white sheer curtains billowing in the windows. The lawn is a little worse for wear and the flower beds have been left to grow wild, spilling over their beds all over the yard. The house could use a coat of paint, but deep down it was still the same. Well, except that we were all that was left… and she was gone. _

_There's a light on in the back of the house. The kitchen? The scent of coffee came to us on the evening breeze, making my mouth water in anticipation and my spine tingle at the deja-vu. At least some things hadn't changed._

_At least now I knew who had survived: it had to be Mrs. M. I'd seen Jack die myself, Jack and Annie had been too little to have a chance at surviving the attack and Mr. Morgan had died of a bullet wound to the head. He'd been the suicide the papers had mentioned. _

_At least now I knew which ghost I'd be facing in the flesh. The rest, I knew, would creep through the shadows and pounce on me when I least expected them to. So I brace myself and follow Sammy through the screen door at the back of the house as he calls out a hello to let Mrs. M. know we've arrived. Only there's no answer. The tall willowy blonde woman I was expecting to see by the kitchen sink was nowhere to be found. All there was to see was a fresh pot of coffee and a note that read: 'Had to go. Be gone all night. Make yourselves at home. See you tomorrow.' I grunted my surprise. The poor woman probably didn't want to have anything to do with us. No wonder she'd gone out. Who would want all those memories and all that pain?_

_So Sam poured us each a cup of coffee and I pulled out our equipment and set to work melting silver bullets at the kitchen table. Sometime after one Sammy fell asleep on the couch. I covered him with the quilt that was handy and went back to cleaning our 'tools'. I didn't want to sleep until the sun rose. Nightmares are easier to deal with in the light of day. When dawn finally came our guns practically sparkled inside and out, our knives were so well sharpened you could slice a hair on them and every bit of silver we'd managed to get our hands on in the past year was melted into enough ammunition to fit every type of gun we own. I was not going to take any chances with this one. _

_Through the night I'd fought the urge to wander the house to see what, if anything, had changed. My ghosts were calling to me, stubborn as I am I decided to let them wait. I'd face them on my own terms and be damned with 'em. Now that morning was here I just wanted to lay down and sleep. I didn't even bother looking for a bed. I just grabbed up the other quilt, a throw pillow in the living room and lay down on the floor by the couch and Sam. I don't even remember closing my eyes._

I just kept hitting and hitting it, trying to get the smelly bastard off of me. His foaming mouth and sharp teeth were inches away from the soft skin of my face. I should have been afraid, but I felt nothing but rage. It was _his_ fault they were dead. The heat of my lust for revenge pumped through my veins, fuelling me and giving me the kind of strength no ten year old boy possessed. It wasn't until I felt its claws tear into my shoulders and calves that I finally tasted fear. It's flavor the thick and metallic one of my own blood. I heard a scream… loud and agonized… somewhere it registered that the scream was coming from me…

_I'm not sure if it was the far off sound of gunshot in the dream or the soft footsteps in the kitchen, but something woke me so suddenly that I shot halfway across the room knife in hand and ready to fight for my life. It was no small relief to realize that unlike last time, the knife wasn't at someone's throat. Sammy was in the kitchen humming quietly to some yuppy music station he was listening to. My stomach growled at the scent of eggs and toast. There were no strange sounds, nothing out of the ordinary… unless you counted the fact that we were even in that particular house again. I could almost believe that Sammy hadn't heard me launch myself across the room, except that he poked his head in a second later. "Well good morning sleeping beauty." I scowled. There's nothing worse than a morning person at the butt-crack of dawn. _

"_What time is it?" I managed to croak out, voice as rough as coarse sandpaper. He made a show of fingers, seven of them, smiled that bit of mischief of his and turned back to the kitchen. I was in for one hell of a day. Barely and hour's sleep to go on, preliminary research to do, a werewolf pack trail to pick up and Mrs. Morgan to face after all these years. To top it all off everywhere I turned this morning I saw the shadow of the blonde little pixie in my mind. Deep breath Dean. Better get on with it. The sooner it's done and over with, the sooner you can leave this place and start to forget any of it ever happened. _

_Sam met me at the table with a cup of coffee and that smile again. I took a sip, fantasizing about the ways I could wipe it off of him, and immediately started to feel a little more human. I looked at him over the edge of my cup and couldn't help but smile, early morning or no. He was wearing a pale yellow apron with ruffles framing the front pocket. His hands were coated in foodstuffs from whatever he was making for breakfast and his cheeks were flushed with pleasure. Cute. My little brother the homemaker. "If I'd known you could cook, Francis, I'd pay the extra and get the suite with the kitchen more often. I like the apron by the way, definitely your color dude" I couldn't resist the nudge. I know it was a jerk thing to say, but damn it; it was his fault I was back in this hell to begin with. It didn't matter anyway because it didn't faze him a bit. "Ha ha Dean. Say whatever you want, but you'll be singing my praises and taking it all back by the time you get a taste of breakfast." He took another long swig of coffee and turned back to the stove. Who knew my brother could cook? I sure as hell would never have guessed. I may have found an actual advantage to this college thing…_

_Some breakfast , a lot more coffee and a long hot shower later we packed up the car again and headed into town to get some actual work done. I wanted to head out to Franconia State Park while he did the book-geek stuff, but Sammy wouldn't let me out of his sight. Something about him not wanting to take any chances… whatever that means. So we spent the whole day touring the local library, police station, hospital and public records office researching every missing person in the last twenty years. _

_By the time we pulled into the drive again it was close to ten. The sun had gone down hours earlier and there were no lights on anywhere in the house. Had Mrs. Morgan come home yet? Was she in bed? Should we knock? Should we just go ahead on in? "You think she's home? I don't think we left a light on when we left." Of course we didn't. That would be a normal thing to do. **We **on the other hand turn all the lights off when we leave the motel of the moment for awhile, and sometimes set traps in them so we can tell if someone or something has been there when we get back. _

"_Listen Sammy… why don't we just head over to a motel for tonight. She'll be in bed by now if she _is _home. No sense waking her up now when we could just as well come by tomorrow instead." Thank God he didn't argue. Why he was so set on staying in that house I just don't understand…_

_We checked into this little hole-in-the-wall job 'Big Bob's Cabin' twenty minutes later. The room, as usual, was a bit grungy. This particular one was filled with stereotypical backwoods-type decorations. I took one look at the antlers mounted on the wall and walked right back out the door. I caught Sammy as he left the rental office. He took one look at me and laughed. "That bad in there, is it?" "Hell yeah! I am _not _going back in there until I've had at least a couple." "All right, well Bob in there told me about a bar about ten minutes from here…" He didn't have to say anything more. "Get in the car, I can make it in five."_

_I should have known the night was going to hell when I stepped into the motel room and saw the antlers. One of the young local guys at the bar recognized Sammy and I from sixteen years ago. He bought us some beers and then spent the next three hours entertaining Sam, telling him all about the last time we were here. Most of it was about me, since Sammy had spent most of the time at the house with Peter back then. I've had more enjoyable conversations with angry demons. Sam seemed to enjoy himself just fine though, so I just sat there and worked on a beer buzz. By the time we stumbled back to the room I was too drunk to care what the décor looked like. _

_I had a feeling that something was different before I even opened the door, it was gooseflesh on my arms before the knowledge even registered under the haze that surrounded me. I mean, Sam and I swept the room like we always do, checking windows and doors to be sure everything was how we left it and nothing had been there while we were gone. I didn't _think _I was drunk enough to miss anything… certainly not something that big… and yet I did. We both did actually. If Sammy hadn't turned on the bathroom light before closing the door I would most likely have just pulled off my pants and crawled into bed, completely oblivious except for the feeling of something being slightly off teasing the edge of my thoughts. _

_As it was, light spilled from the bathroom and across the bed to reveal quite possibly the most startling sight I've ever seen. A small blonde was sprawled out on her stomach, fast asleep in my bed. She looked almost childlike in sleep and although her eyes were closed I'd bet my Impala that when they open they'll be a smoky charcoal grey. She was the last surviving Morgan, only she wasn't Mrs. Morgan like we thought. _She _was little miss Annie Morgan, the little blonde eight year old who'd stolen my heart and had haunted me for the last sixteen years. The one who recently had begun to infiltrate my dreams again. The one I thought was dead. What the hell was she doing in this motel room, on my bed, in the middle of the night… _alive

_I took a step back with the force of the shock that ripped through me. She was alive. Did Sam know? Is that why he'd wanted us to stay in the old house? Did he know she'd come here tonight? The possibilities ran rampant in my mind… until I heard him shuffle out of the bathroom and stop dead in his tracks. I knew without even having to look that he had no idea who she was. "Dean?" his whisper was loud enough to wake the dead. "I thought you promised: no more bringing them back to the motel." "I didn't pick her up Sammy. She came with the room." He whipped his head around "she _what_?" _


	4. Chapter 4 Then There Was She

_**And then there was she…**_

_The angel shifted ever so slightly as she slept, a soft sigh escaping her lips. "Sam… how much did I have to drink tonight? Is there any possible way I'm drunk enough to be hallucinating?" "I don't know Dean. Not that many, no more than usual. She looks pretty real to me." He was looking at me the way people look at crazy people who talk to themselves in the street. I couldn't blame him, finding a girl in my bed would normally be a good thing. He didn't know who she was so my reaction made no sense to him. I didn't bother looking away from her. "It's her Sam." The reaction was instantaneous. "What? How? Are you _sure _it's her? I mean, it's been sixteen years… and she's supposed to be dead." Did I hear fear under all that shock? "Oh, it's her all right. It is definitely her. I don't know how… That girl right there is Annie Morgan." She smiled in her sleep and shifted again as if to prove the words I'd just spoken and didn't quite believe. I almost fell over. How the hell could she be alive? Dad had said they'd all died. _

_Not knowing what else to do and unwilling to wake her up and face what was now reality; I sat down on Sammy's bed and just watched her sleep. I heard the click of Sammy's cell phone. He was probably calling Dad. I didn't care what he did right now. She was my only concern. God, I just wanted to touch her to be sure she was really there… grown up… _breathing.

_By some miracle Dad picked up. Figures this would be the one time he picks up when we call. We've been back to Lawrence, I've almost died, but it took the reappearance of the one person who ever brought out the normal in me for him to pick up right away. Bits and pieces of their conversation made it through the haze that was still my mind. Sammy was agitated. Dad shouted something when he found out we were in Franconia. I couldn't tell what he said, but I could hear his voice from across the room. I think Sam asked him if he knew that Annie was still alive. I didn't want to know the answer yet so I tuned them out._

_I couldn't get close enough to her… I found myself moving from Sam's bed to kneel on the floor where I could get a better look at that face. She was so beautiful… How the hell did that little wisp of a thing survive multiple bullets and a werewolf attack?_

_She couldn't have been bitten. Too young to be turned, the changing process from human to werewolf would have killed her. When a human makes the transformation to a werewolf the whole body changes. Bones grow at intense speeds, muscles thicken and shift to accommodate and before you know it your body has become a grotesque mess. You end up with something between a human and a wolf with a touch of blood thirsty Wendigo in the mix for good measure. Children's bodies aren't strong enough to take such a massive shock. Instead of changing, their bodies actually start to shut down in protest to the demands being made on them. They don't stand a chance at survival. _

_Her father had shot them all though… she had died… the pictures had been in the paper. There had been no mistaking it, and it had all but destroyed me to see them. Yet there she was. How had she survived? _

_I reached out to touch her face. I had to know it was real. She moved just before my fingers touched soft skin and I drew back feeling as if I'd been burnt. Ghosts I could handle. They're generally evil and there are any number of ways to repel or dispose of them. This one I didn't know what to do with._

_Sam was off the phone finally. He spoke to me, but I didn't pay him any attention. I don't know what he said, but things must be okay because he crawled into bed a few minutes later. I sat in a chair in the far corner of the room intent on watching her sleep until she woke. I had no doubt it would be a long night even now that most of it was over. I propped an ankle on one knee, crossed my arms and got as comfortable as I could get. Then I waited. I hadn't intended to, but before I knew it my eyes were closed and sleep crept past my defenses. _

He was on top of me again, snarling and drooling all over my face. His hot breath overwhelmed me, and still I fought him off. The gashes on my shoulders and legs were on fire, making it hard to move. Move I did though. I thrashed around, trying hard to wrestle the beast so _it_ was the one laying on the ground. Dad yelled out to me just before I heard something imbed itself in the dirt just above my head. Even as the mangy thing stretched out above me, sniffing closer toward the shiny object, my fist closed around its hilt. I pulled the long, jagged edged knife out if its resting place in the ground just by my head (where Dad had expertly tossed it) and turned all of my energy on the thing that stood on top of me. Everything else around us faded away, there was just the wolf and I fighting each other to live. For what seemed like forever all that existed were the sounds of my ragged breathing, the werewolf's snarls and the feel of the knife plunging into it over and over again. Nothing more than that mattered.

_His first conscious thought was that he _had _to stop waking up this way. He was on his ass on the floor in front of the chair he'd slept in. No weapon in hand this time, thank god, but this time he was in a cold sweat. Someone was in front of him, Sammy? No… not Sammy. Too small, too curvy. A girl? He thought back to the bar… no, no girl there… so who…?Then it hit him again full force in the gut: Annie! _

_Concerned grey eyes framed by tousled sun streaked blonde hair hovered inches from his own. He shoved himself as far back against the chair as he could get, and away from her. He only gained a few more inches distance, but he'd take what he could get. Not trusting his own emotions he didn't dare speak. Move. Breathe._

"_Dean? Hey, Dean! Are you okay?" she was asking him. He felt a little unhinged. It was one thing to come back drunk and face a sleeping ghost. It was another entirely to wake from a nightmare with that ghost in your face and speaking to you after sixteen years. She waved a hand in front of his face and he swatted it away and got up. _

_Sam was awake and sipping coffee in front of his laptop and sunlight was streaming through the window. "Nightmare again Dean?" he asked, concerned. Dean just growled incoherently and made his escape to the bathroom. Annie turned to Sam "Nightmares? That doesn't sound like Dean. How long has he been having those?" "Not long. They started about three nights ago. I tried to wake him up and… well it didn't turn out like I expected. Nightmares are usually my department so I'm a little worried about him." _

_Sam and Annie had been awake a few hours already. He'd wanted to ask her how she had survived so many years ago, but figured that was an answer Dean would want to get from her himself. So they'd made coffee and discussed the current 'situation' in Franconia. _

_Sam could tell she was scared, and with good reason. That's why she'd tracked them down last night when they hadn't come back to the house. A werewolf in this neck of the woods after all this time? Dean had mentioned that he'd heard nothing of werewolves since the Morgans… so for those things to decide to show themselves here after all this time... It had to mean something. Sam didn't tell her that of course… at least he tried not to. The girl was quick. She'd figured it out on her own. _

_Annie had spent the last sixteen years researching werewolves. It was a private obsession of hers after her family had been destroyed. There wasn't much she didn't know about them. So when people started disappearing the safe quiet life she had worked so hard to build over the years became a lot scarier. When Sam had called she had immediately known why they were coming. It just made sense that they should stay at the house with her… besides that she felt safer knowing Dean would be there._

_Ah, Dean. Now that was a whole other scary part of her life…_

_Dean found sanctuary in the bathroom. He popped a couple of Advil, those nightmares were starting to give him headaches. "Stupid freaking nightmares." He mumbled to himself. He'd have to remember that alcohol only made them worse… Christ, they were getting to his head. Now he was imagining Annie alive. Did Sam think he was crazy? Maybe he was… It had to be a good thing that he at least _recognized _that the hallucination hadn't been real. Maybe there was hope for him yet. _

_Halfway through his shower he started craving coffee. "Sammy!" he shouted at the top of his lungs "Tell me there's coffee left for me!" "I'm sorry Dean, who's Sammy? No one here but Francis…" his brothers teasing voice came through the door. Dean smiled to himself. "Ha ha Sammy! That better be a yes! Although, if Francis would like to make pancakes I like mine with chocolate chips…" Yup, Dean was definitely feeling better now. A shower was just what he'd needed. He'd even managed to convince himself he had still been dreaming when he saw Annie this morning. Besides, who could stay upset with the scent of coffee and pancakes in the air?_

_So he wrapped a towel around his waist and sauntered back into the room fully expecting to find no one but Sammy and the coffee. And at first it was. Sammy was the first thing he saw when he stepped in the room, handing him a perfect cup of coffee. He was even beginning to think there may actually be an advantage to this nightmare thing… two mornings in a row now he didn't have to hunt down his own coffee…His musings were cut short when he looked up from his first sip to a pair of charcoal eyes. "Sam, I need a doctor. Call me a doctor. Someone close. Someone who'll take me _now_." Dean said urgently, not daring to move and do it himself. If his head was that far out of whack there's no telling what else could crap out on him. "_What? _Why? What's the matter?" "Just call the doctor Sam. I'm hallucinating and it's freaking me out." For him to admit it flat out like that… it took a lot. "You're not hallucinating Dean." Sam was trying to calm him down, but it just made him angry. _

"_Look: I'm freaking staring at a girl who died sixteen years ago Sammy. Don't tell me I'm not hallucinating. Call a doctor damn it!" "Dean…" It was Sam who started to say it, but Annie finished the sentence for him. "I'm not dead Dean. You're not hallucinating" She stepped closer to him. "Don't be ridiculous, of course you're dead! I saw all those pictures in the papers. Six different States for God's sake. You. Died." He told the ghost before him, then turned to Sam when he realized he was now _talking _to his hallucination. "Oh god! I'm talking to it. Sam. Doctor. NOW!" then he had a thought, if she was a ghost, a real ghost, he could repel her with rock salt. A gun, he needed a gun. So he jumped on the duffel bag and started frantically clawing around it. Hallucination or ghost, either way he'd feel a hell of a lot safer if he were armed!_

_She snuck up on him. Nobody ever managed to sneak up on him. He wasn't expecting her to suddenly be in his face again. "Dean, would you just calm down and listen? I am not dead!" Had Sam not explained it to her earlier, Annie would have thought Dean to be neurotic. As it was all she felt was sympathy. It had to be hard after all this time, to see something that he thought he had lost forever, suddenly right before him. With the kind of stuff they did, it was no wonder he thought he was crazy or in danger. She was hoping that if he'd just let her get close enough to touch him it would help. Maybe warm skin would convince him she wasn't something to be afraid of. That's why she snuck up on him. That's why she was now in his face, once again inches away from those frantic hazel eyes. He put up empty hands as if he were under arrest and backed up a step right into the chair he'd slept in the night before. Looking absolutely ridiculous in just a towel, he was the sweetest thing she'd ever seen. Somehow he didn't seem to be the helpless type. To see him this way had to be a once in a lifetime thing. She smiled a Mona Lisa smile and reached out a hand to touch his cheek. The moment flesh met flesh he jumped six feet into the air. "AH! Jesus! God! You're _real_!"_

_Shock. His first reaction, like the night before, was shock. He looked to Sammy for confirmation. Dude was not helping, doubled over laughing like that. He had tears in his eyes for christ sake. He… he wasn't hallucinating… which meant Annie was real. She was real. Holy crap! Annie was real and _alive _and standing less than a foot away from him. So Dean acted in true Dean fashion: Act first, ask questions later. _

_She didn't even have the time to blink. He had her in his arms, holding her close partly to convince himself she truly was there and partly because he was just so happy that he could. It took a second for him to realize that her arms were around his shoulders and she was clinging as tightly as he was. Unfortunately on the tail end of that realization, the _other _realization came to him. He was still wearing nothing but a towel! Any other girl, any other time, he wouldn't have cared. But this was Annie and he was mortified. So for the third… maybe fourth time in less than twelve hours he jumped back and away from her. He glanced down at the damp towel then back up at her apologetically. "Sorry sweetheart, I would have dressed for this but you kinda took me by surprise." Finally feeling like he was getting back to himself he flashed her a wicked grin, snatched up some clothes and made another quick retreat to the bathroom. _

"_You still want me to call that doctor Dean?" Sam somehow managed to wheeze out between bursts of hearty laughter. "Two words Sammy: Shut. Up." Dean warned. It was no use though. Sam only laughed harder. He was _still_ laughing quietly to himself intermittently about it hours later. _

_**Nothing else matters**_

_I would never have thought it possible. A romantic moment to the tune of Metallica… I mean _come on_. My brother, of course, would be the one to prove me wrong. _

_We were sitting around the living room pouring over the stacks of Annie's books, boning up on legend and lore that might help us and comparing them to things that Dean and Annie remembered from sixteen years before. There were yawns all around, after having spent the day in Sugar Hill, hunting down as much information as possible on the disappearances and the kids that went missing. I was getting used to the smell of coffee that seemed to constantly be in the air in this place. Well the last few days finally caught up with Dean. He just let out one large yawn…Annie laughed at him and put on some music to wake him up. So help me, it was Metallica. Dean stretched out to the sounds of 'Nothing Else Matters' and caught her hand in his. She pulled him to his feet and with a little coercion on Annie's part they started to sway gracefully around the room. When he lifted her up and lowered her gently so that her feet rested on his… well I think they forgot there was someone else there with them. They never even noticed me leave. My last glance… I'll always remember the sight of him. His face buried in her hair as he waltzed them around the room as if he were born to dance… Who knew Dean could waltz? _


	5. Chapter 5 Enter LightCome Dawn

_**Enter light/ Come dawn…**_

_When did Sammy go upstairs? I have no idea. The second I had her in my arms everything else just faded away. Nothing else mattered. When the song was over I noticed how truly tired she was. I wanted to kiss her… God but I wanted to kiss her! But I didn't. Instead I gently traced the raccoon-like circles she had around her eyes with a finger. "We're going to have to do something about these hmmm?" "I haven't slept much in the last month or so. I don't plan to either until this whole mess is over." That's my girl. Oh she's always been a fighter. Sure I'm proud of her for it but that doesn't mean I'm going to let her get away with it this time. So I tucked a stray strand of gold behind her ear and looked her straight in the eye. "Get some sleep. Sammy'n I are here, you're safe." She arched an eyebrow at my no-nonsense tone. "Oh really? And while the two of you take care of everyone else who takes care of you?" Her mother's daughter alright. "We take care of each other. Now off with you to bed." I turned her around and pointed her at the stairs. I should have known better than to try and tell her what to do. She just dug her heels in. I couldn't budge her. "I'm not going anywhere. First of all this is my house, second you were never able to tell me what to do and third if you want to move me you'll have to pick me up and carry me." I knew better than to argue. Hanging my head I sighed and conceded and said the words I never thought I'd ever say. "Can we compromise then?" Yes, Dean Winchester the stubborn 'my way or the highway' guy suggested compromise. Get over it already. Man am I glad Sammy was already in bed. I'd never hear the end of it. _

"_Get the quilt and curl up on the couch while we work and if you start feeling tired close your eyes." It was reasonable and I knew she couldn't argue it… well she could try but I would either win or pick her up and physically make her do it in which case I would also win. Thank god she decided to go with reason because I'm not sure I was up for wrestling with her given how little sleep I've had myself lately. _

_So while she curled up with a book I checked the windows and doors, bolting everything securely shut for the night in case we should get some late night furry visitors. I found Sammy fast asleep with a book on his chest. As usual he'd fallen asleep reading. I shut off the light, marked the page he was reading before putting the book aside and pulled the blanket up over him. He might be an adult now, but I'm still his big brother. _

_Annie was already fast asleep by the time I got back from doing my rounds. It's still so hard to believe that she's not some sort of hallucination. She's alive and she looks just the same as she did sixteen years ago only older in a curvy, delicious sort of way. Yeah, delicious is most definitely the word I would use to describe her._

_I think I fell asleep somewhere close to one again. I remember reading a passage in this really old book of German legends about a human skin belt… really disgusting stuff… I blinked and I was smack in the middle of a dream again. _

It was dark, so very dark. Dad and I were following wolf tracks up the Franconia Notch trail. Annie was gone and I wanted them all dead too. Dad had given me one of the shotguns loaded with silver bullets. We weren't really sure if it would work… there were quite a few variations to the legends and it was hard to tell which one was the right one to go with. They all had one thing in common though: kill the alpha wolf and the rest either change back or die too. That was the plan. Kill the alpha wolf and get the hell out of there.

We found them just before midnight in a clearing about halfway up the foot trail. The sound of water surrounded us from the Flumes but even that didn't drown out the wet cracking sound of the wolves enjoying their meal. They'd somehow dragged up a cow. How the heck they'd got it up the rickety wooden stairs that were the only way up the flume walls I'll never know. There they were, ten of them crunching away at the Holstein's insides. Thank god it hadn't been a human, I think I may have thrown up. I was awfully close already.

It wasn't hard to tell which one was their leader. He had glowing black eyes, nasty sharp looking fangs and his pelt was tinted a light grey in the moonlight. Whenever he moved the wolves closest to him cringed away to a respectful distance. That was the one we needed to kill.

Dad took the first shot. It hit square in the old wolf's chest. The thing reared up on its hind legs and let out a blood curdling howl. I felt his hand on my shoulder telling me to stay hidden right where I was before he moved a couple of feet away to take his next shot. We must have been downwind because one of the younger wolves in the pack had scented him. He was attacked as he took the second shot. The shot went wide and my heart stopped as I saw them both go down. Dad pushed its head as far up above him as it would go. "Do it now Dean!" he shouted, and I fired. I'll never be positive of what happened next… it happened so quickly and I was so scared. It could have just been my imagination but I swear that as it fell off dad it changed to human form and then back again. It was Jack. I swear to god it was Jack. That's when I gave us away. I screamed his name long and loud.

_I woke with his name a whisper on my lips, panting and heart racing as if I'd been running for hours. Annie was still fast asleep, though now she had her head on a pillow on my lap. I looked down at her immediately relieved and that's when I heard it again. It was the sound that woke me. Outside. It was coming from outside. Somewhere near the kitchen… scratching? No… too heavy for scratching. It was a heavy sound, like footsteps. My eyes drifted to the window hoping to see a tree branch or something so I wouldn't have to get up and wake Annie and Sammy. There was no branch, of course. The nearest tree grew close to ten feet away on the property line. No, instead there was a face. Jack's blue-gray eyes met mine through the window and I jumped up and off the couch, screaming his name as I had in the dream. In that moment I blinked and he was gone. Had that been part of the dream too?_

_Suddenly Sam was running down the stairs and Annie was next to me. They both were looking to me trying to figure out what was wrong. "Dean?" Sam asked. "I saw Jack in the window." I hate that my voice was shaking, my hands were too when I looked down at them. "Could it have been a dream?" Annie asked. "I mean, I'm the one who identified the bodies. Eight years old… that kind of thing stays with you. I'm positive he's dead." "I don't know Annie. I thought the alpha wolf was dead too, and I'm pretty sure he's still alive. It's possible that I dreamt it but I'm pretty sure I didn't. He was real." _

"_Well, there's only one way to know for sure, isn't there?" Good old Sam. What would I do without him? Our eyes met over Annie. We'd have to dig him up. It was the only way to be sure. She wouldn't like it and I wasn't looking forward to telling her… but it had to be done and we'd have to do it during the day. If that truly had been Jack he'd sleep with the rest of the pack during the day. It wasn't safe for Annie to be out at night. Now more than ever I was positive that they were back to finish the job. They wanted Annie and to get her they'd have to go through me. _

_As for Jack… well if it really was him I saw we'd cross that bridge when we came to it._

"_Okay, so what have we learned so far? What of all this." I asked, waving at the massive piles of books that peppered the living room and dining room "can we use against these things." "Well for one" Sam answered "we know that, although they posses near invulnerability, they can be killed. It's just a matter of process of elimination to find out which method is the right one to kill them off." "Right, well I think we can eliminate the one that says we have to break the buckle on the human skin belt." Sam nodded agreement with me. "I like the sound of the silver bullet to the heart theory, but somehow it seems too easy. I mean, if that were the right one then this whole thing would have ended with you and Dad years ago." _

"_Okay, so we're looking for commonalities then, right?" We met Annie's question with nods. "Well what about this 'Beast of Gevaudan' legend. It shares something in common with just about every legend, and it has a plausible way to kill them that also agrees with most of the theories we've come across so far." _

_Okay, I was willing to buy into it and said as much. "As much as I hate to say it, I think she's right Sam. I mean, most of the kids that went missing were young girls." Sam picked up on my train of thought. "It wasn't until Dad shot the thing in the head that it finally fell off of you, right?" "Right. So we have a huge arsenal of silver bullets. We could use those for good measure…that way we're covering all of our bases. Aim for the head _and _the heart on the alpha dog and according to the legends we'll wipe out the whole pack at the same time. Those too far gone to turn back will die like their leader, the rest turn back into humans. I say once we kill the damned thing off we burn it too, like they did to the Gevaudan beast the second time around. Dad and I obviously did something wrong last time and I'm not taking any chances." "You did the best you could Dean…" I heard her words, I just didn't believe them. In my mind we definitely could have done more. So I did what I do best when it comes to emotions like those, I ignored them and changed the subject. _

_The next step was to find out if Jack was actually dead and buried, and then pick up the trail of the wolf pack. According to the legends, once a werewolf has a lair it tends to stick to it. They're not really into change. So it's a pretty safe bet that we were going to pay a late night visit to Franconia Notch again. Only this time we were going prepared. This time the s-o-b would die, and I was going to be damned sure his death would be permanent. _

_**Six degrees of separation**_

_Grave digging is nasty business no matter how you cut it. Doing it in broad daylight with a priest, the cemetery caretaker, the sister of the deceased and your little brother in a monkey suit posing as an FBI agent working a lead on a case makes it that much more awkward. The only possible consolation I could get out of this was that I was completely destroying my own hated monkey suit. The thought made me grin. One less costume for Sammy to make me wear…I could see the tear in the corner of his eye as he silently mouthed the word 'Armani'. Personally I didn't care who the hell made the damn thing. As long as I never had to wear it again it was all good. The thought had me shoveling away with a vengeance. It came as a surprise when I hit something solid somewhere around six feet into it. _

_Annie had mentioned life insurance and the inheritance her parents left her. She was very much a no-frills kind of girl so it was a bit of a surprise to find such an ornate and obviously expensive casket. At eight years old she hadn't been able to handle any of the funeral arrangements, the insurance company had handled it all for her. Maybe it was the media coverage, maybe it was just because she had lost everything and they felt badly for her… whatever the reason the insurance company had spared nothing for Annie and her family. _

_Now, during a 'normal' late night grave-digging expedition (if there is such a thing) I wouldn't take the time to pull the casket out of the ground. I'd just break right through the top of the casket or box and work with what I found. This time Sam, Annie and I had gone to more than a little trouble to convince the caretaker and the parish priest (who had inconveniently been visiting the cemetery when we arrived) that we were FBI agents investigating the Morgan family deaths. The cover wasn't very far from the truth: we suspected there had been another player involved who was not related to the family. The reason for digging up Jack's body? He was supposed to have died in the house at the time of the murder suicide two weeks before his freshly murdered body had been found among several others on the Franconia Notch Flume foot trails. We were hoping to find the evidence we needed with Jack's body. _

_Annie didn't have to act much for her part, she was visibly shaken by just the thought of digging up his grave. I would have liked to be the one comforting her as Sam dug up the casket… but I had more experience with this kind of thing and also better aim with a shovel. Had Sammy done it not only would our cover have been blown but we'd all have been covered in dirt before he got a foot into the ground. _

_As it was, Sammy held Annie close as the caretaker pulled up the casket with the same machine usually used to lower them into the ground. All the while I prayed silently that it had all been for nothing. We'd crack the thing open and be greeted with the stomach turning smell of decomposing body and be able to call it a day. Of course it couldn't have been that easy… it's never that easy. I pried the lid off myself. There was no stench, there was no body, there was nothing at all but the satin covered inside of a new-smelling casket. Five people to witness it, one unanimous reaction: "What the…!" followed quickly with my own personal "Oh shit!" I got a condemning glare from the preacher for that one, but what the hell did I care? Jack was a werewolf and he was on the prowl somewhere near here. Annie now knew for sure that he was alive…although to what extent none of us were quite sure. I was pretty sure he had passed the point of no return years ago and would die with the alpha wolf. Ultimately Annie would be the one to bury him a third time sixteen years after the fact of his original death and I would be the cause of his death… again. _


	6. Chapter 6 ResolutionUnexpected Ally

_**Resolution**_

_So how did Jack survive? How did the alpha wolf survive? Well the popular theory is that the wolf changed back to its human form and had his injuries treated in hospital. Jack most likely wasn't quite dead when we left. Dad had been so concerned with getting me away from there that he wasn't as thorough as usual. He always takes the time to check, to be sure he finished the job. Every time except this one. The Morgan family deaths caused such a sensation back then that one man with strange injuries and practically on his deathbed arriving in hospital would easily have been overlooked by the media. _

_At this point it really doesn't matter much how it survived. His days are numbered. He won't see the next full moon. _

_There is also Annie. I don't want her to have any part of this. The look on her face when the sight of the empty casket hit home…She knew, as soon as I had it open she knew that she'd be burying him again soon. The misery was enough to break my heart all over again. I want to lock her away somewhere far away from all this until its over, somewhere she'll be safe from these things. _

_Of course, Annie being Annie would never let me do it. I couldn't even convince her to stay home while we went out to pick up their trail. Sammy sure found it entertaining. I told her Sammy and I were heading up to the Franconia Notch flumes to see what we could find. I wanted her to stay at the house and lock herself in, just in case Jack came back to the house. She wouldn't have any of it. Danger or no she was going to Franconia._

"_Fine then, I guess there's just one thing to do then. No sense in my staying home while you guys are off doing something productive. I'll just head up to Franconia Notch myself. I should be able to pick up their trail as well as you boys can." It was exactly the type of bold defiance I should have expected. "Excuse me? You're going to what exactly?" I asked, more than a little agitated. "You heard me. I'm not just going to sit around the house when I could be doing something about this." "No, no I don't think I did hear you. Not properly anyway, because I could've sworn I heard you say you were going up to Franconia Notch all by yourself to track down a pack of bloodthirsty werewolves." My voice was dangerously low. No WAY was I going to let her risk facing those bastards alone. She jingled her car keys "Watch me" and started walking towards her car. I didn't have a choice. Taking her with us was the lesser of two evils._

_I ran around the Impala and cut her off midway to her own car. She just stopped, crossed her arms and waited. "Alright. Fine. Come along. Just get in the damned car." All patience gone, I just wanted to stop her from doing something ultimately stupid. She smiled angelically. I hate that smile. It always means trouble. _

"_What if I don't want to come along anymore? Seems to me we'd make better progress if we split up and tackled different areas." What? And let her out of my sight? I don't think so. "Annie, sweetheart. I'm going to say this once and once only and I mean it in the nicest possible way. Get in the damned car now or so help me I will toss you over my shoulder, haul you over there kicking and screaming and strap you in there myself." "Hey Sammy! Question: when did Dean become such a caveman?" Oh, she was doing it just to get to me. I knew it. I knew it and still I reacted. She loves it when I react. I swear it's enough to drive me insane…and Sam just fueled the fire. "Right about when he hit puberty actually." He answered, not missing out on the chance of a lifetime to pick on me and get away with it. "Oh, real funny Sam. Nice. Real nice." I shot him an evil warning glare. It said shut up about it and help me out with this or else. Fortunately for him he's my little brother and as per the job description he reserves the right to ignore anything I say or do whenever he wants to. _

"_I swear Annie. He hit thirteen, he discovered girls and that was it for him. Might as well hand him a club and call it a day." Great, just great. I pointed at him menacingly. "Sam, shut your pie hole." And then turned to Annie. "You are a bad influence." I told her and then moved forward to follow through on my threat. In true Annie fashion, all mischief, she dodged so I'd miss her and stuck out her tongue at me. Then she sashayed her pretty little behind all the way to the Impala where Sammy (ever the gentleman) opened the passenger door and gave her first choice of seats. She couldn't resist one last little jab. _

"_Hey Dean…" she was the picture of innocence. I didn't trust it one bit, apparently with good reason. "…Can I drive?" _

_I swear she was trying to make up for sixteen years of lost time. Drive my car? She really was crazy. I just rolled my eyes and revved the engine. I could use another coffee and the morning wasn't even over yet… heck at this point I could probably use a good stiff drink…Instead I cranked up the stereo and Highway to Hell blasted loudly enough to rock the car. Fitting, the song, if those two kept it up. _

_Sixteen years and she still knows the buttons to push… and now she had Sammy doing it too. What the heck am I going to do with her?_

_**An unexpected ally**_

_We got quite a few strange looks when we got there. Eyes followed us from the parking lot all the way up the trail and back. Let's face it, we definitely didn't look like locals or tourists. The good news was that it didn't take us long to pick up the trail. It was laid out as clearly as it had been sixteen years earlier. Footprints turned into pawprints, larger than any dog or wolf I've ever seen. We veered off the trail once we got up to the top of the flume in order to follow them and ended up staring at the mouth of a cave. Footprints and paw prints led in, out and all around the entrance. There were bits and pieces of animal carcasses scattered here and there…everything from rabbits and squirrels to larger farm animals. I half expected to see the remains of a cow somewhere among along the way. _

_The werewolves themselves were nowhere to be seen, which was not surprising. In the legends and my own past history with them it was pretty clear that they were nocturnal. Most likely they were hiding out in the cave until nightfall. That suited me just fine, more time for us to plan our attack. Not to mention, I liked the possibility of being able to set up some kind of trap right at their front door while they slept, a little extra precaution could only help our cause._

_We didn't stick around long once we found the place. I did make sure we measured the distance between the cave and the clearing where the fight had taken place originally. I knew that terrain better than the cave. Like I said, I'm not taking any chances on this one. The more advantages we had working for us the better. _

_Annie had this crazy-ass idea that she broke to me on the way to the car. She wanted to act as bait to lure them out to familiar ground. What's more: she wanted to be the one to 'take care' of Jack. The last part I could understand… but that meant bringing her along for the final battle. Something I was definitely not going to agree to. As for bait…the idea was just plain crazy and I didn't hesitate to let her know it was either. Sammy practically ran to the car when the shit hit the fan. We were yelling at each other the whole way. This time she refused to get in the car until I agreed to let her do it. "Not a chance sweetheart. Not a freaking chance. I just found out that all these years you've been alive. I am not loosing you again. Period." "Come on Dean. I can take care of myself. I did it when I was eight, and I've been doing it ever since. Not only that, but you and Sam will be there. You guys do this kind of thing all the time. You said yourself: you're not going to let anything happen to me." "Do this kind of… all the time?" I managed to snort out. Oh that was a good one! "Honey, I most certainly don't make a habit of using live 'bait'. I'm not about to start the habit now either. Now get in the car and let's go. We have to find you someplace safe where you can lie low for the next couple of days while Sam and I finish this." "I am not going anywhere until you change your mind about this." She dug her heels in and wouldn't budge. "My mind is not changing on this one Annie. As far as I'm concerned the decision has been made." Then I showed her exactly how much the caveman I really am. _

_I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder, fully intending to toss her in the car and drive her far away. I didn't know where I'd take her yet, but I did know I'd make her stay there if I had to tie her down and leave Sammy to make sure she didn't follow me back. I wondered if I could get Dad down here to help me out with the pack…_

"_Dude, you're braver than I thought. Last guy to try something like that almost lost his family jewels." The voice wasn't Sam's, but I recognized it and almost dropped Annie when I heard it. Instead I gently put her back on her feet and grabbed her hand. She squeezed it hard as we turned to face it's owner. There before us was a huge, hairy man with blue-gray eyes and Annie's angelic smile. "Jack?" It came out a question, but it was one I already knew the answer to. "Dean. It's been a really long time." He looked really happy to see me. I wasn't sure I felt the same. _

_Sam was behind him, ready to shoot if Jack made a move toward any of us. It was an unnecessary precaution. Jack was here to talk, not to eat. Still, I placed myself between him and Annie. "What do you want Jack?" He laughed. "You always were such a direct kid. I'm glad to see you haven't lost that." I just raised a questioning brow. What exactly was he here for? "Can we go somewhere to talk? I know why you're here. I want to help you finish this." "How do we know we can trust you? You're one of them now." "It's been a long sixteen years Dean, and they haven't been happy. I just want it to be over. It's time." I heard Annie's breath catch behind me and I knew… we would sit and talk with him. Jack wanted it over, Annie wanted to help him move on. I just wanted to finish it and see Annie safe and happy again. _


	7. Chapter 7 Piecing it Together

_**Piecing it together…**_

_Finally the time for questions and answers had come. _

_What had happened after we left the Morgan's sixteen years ago? _

_Jack started to change the night after we left. It had been easy to hide the first time it happened. He'd just locked his bedroom door and pretended to be sleeping. The next night…well, it had been impossible to hide anymore. _

_The change was complete. He was a werewolf, and when the change came over him all traces of his human side disappeared. It left him purely animal. He didn't even recognize his own family. _

_Somehow Peter had found a way to unlock Jack's bedroom door. He didn't make it past the doorway. The beast that Jack had become sank its hungry teeth in and shook. Peter was gone before his body made it back to the carpeted floor. Mrs. Morgan came running up the stairs when she heard the howl. She didn't have a chance either, although Jack left her lying in the hallway barely alive. Annie had been next. Jack only had the chance to maul her when his father came charging out of nowhere, loaded rifle in hand. Two shots hit dead on into Jack's chest. Still he managed to pounce on his father and sink his teeth in. Mr. Morgan knew what had to be done. One bullet, straight to the heart. Jack went down and didn't move again. _

_Somehow Mr. Morgan managed to haul himself to his feet to see to his family. Peter was dead, that was plainly obvious. Not wanting to take the chance that his youngest son may suffer the same fate as Jack, he reloaded and put a bullet into the boy's heart too. A heart wrenching moment of goodbyes with his wife, and he did the same for her. Annie didn't seem to be breathing. Four deep gashes cut straight across her chest, bleeding out and everywhere around her. Mr. Morgan couldn't even look at her as he pulled the trigger. It's what she would later find out saved her life. He missed her heart completely. The bullet went straight through her shoulder instead. _

_Jack woke to the sound of his father's suicide. He was once again in human form. It took a few minutes for him to understand what he saw. Surrounded by his entire family and lying in their blood…it hit him hard that he had been the cause of this. Unable to contain the disgust he felt for himself he let out a howl of grief._

_Unable to do anything but crawl, painfully pulling his body along the carpeted floor, he forced himself to go to each one of them. He had to know if there was any hope. He had to know if any of them were alive. One by one he felt for a pulse, for breath… anything that would tell him that someone had survived. Finally he crawled over to Annie. With her he found his miracle. Her pulse was weak and she'd lost the hell of a lot of blood but she was alive… if barely. With the last of his strength he pulled himself across the hall and back into his room to dial 9-1-1. "9-1-1 Emergency" a woman said on the other end of the line. "Help me. Everyone's dead, but my sister…help her please…" and then he passed out for the final time. He didn't come to until a full twenty-four hours later when he found himself buck naked in the county morgue. _

_Annie had survived, but when Jack's body went missing the police decided it was safest for her if they reported to the press that the whole family had died. Obviously whoever had done this was still out there and very, very sick. They stole a body right out of the morgue. No telling what they would do to an eight year old girl. _

_It took Annie months to recover. The gashes in her chest took forever to heal up, and the gun shot wound was another thing entirely. Through it all Jack watched over her without her even knowing it. When he was human he called the hospital to check on her progress. He had been the one to deal with the insurance company and the lawyers for her inheritance. When he assumed werewolf form he stayed as far away from her as possible, knowing he wasn't in control of himself. Knowing that if he did stay near her, _HE _would go after her himself. _HE _wanted a piece of Dean Winchester, the boy who had practically torn him to pieces and his father who had nearly finished him off. If _HE _knew Annie was still alive then she would be his bait. She wouldn't get out of it alive this time. Jack had to protect them, the Winchesters and Annie. _HE _must never know there was any connection. _

_Once the story was told, and Annie backed up the parts she knew to be true about her recovery it was decided that Jack could be trusted. At least when he was human. He would change again, and soon. Dusk was only hours away and there was a lot to do before then._

_Annie didn't like it but she agreed to leave until it was all over. Jack didn't want her there when he died again, and Dean didn't want to see her risk her life. She could argue one or the other into submission, but not both so she did what she had to and agreed to leave at first light. Jack didn't want to know where they would send her. It would be safer for her that way if something should go wrong. He was just thankful to have this last little bit of time with her._

_So with Dean's plan, and Jack's help they set to work on destroying the pack once and for all. _

_Later, when it was time for Jack to go Annie broke down. My Annie's a tough one but she's human and she's a girl. Tears were coming, it was just a matter of when. I could tell she had hoped not to cry until he was gone. There was frustration under the sadness in her eyes. When he told her how proud he was of her and the woman she had become though, there was just no holding them back. They were a sight, holding each other tight in the middle of the driveway like that, his tawny mane leaning against her golden one. Both of them trying to squeeze in all the words and emotions that had been denied over the last sixteen years._

_Finally Jack knew he could wait no more. The change was coming and he wouldn't risk hurting any of us. So with a wave of his hand he called me over and suddenly she was in my arms, burying her face in my neck and soaking my shirt with tears. I heard him share a few words with Sam before leaving. I'll never forget the sight of him leaving. He turned on his heel and started running straight down the drive, down the street and out of sight. His long, lean legs pumping gracefully beneath him and taking him effortlessly away from us. I would have waved my own goodbye but he never looked back._


	8. Chapter 8 Leave a Tender Moment Alone

_**Leave a tender moment alone**_

_A home cooked meal… now there was a concept I hadn't even thought of for quite some time. For some reason I had a hard time picturing Annie cooking a meal until now. Yet there she was halfway between the stove and the sink chopping up vegetables, showing me yet another side to her kaleidoscope. There were steaks in mushroom sauce cooking on the stove, and chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. She'd sent Sammy out to pick up a bag of potatoes and was putting together a salad. I felt out of place sitting at the kitchen table with nothing to do. Sam had done the domestic thing with his girlfriend. He had two years experience with this stuff. She probably did this kind of thing for him all the time. Helping out was second nature to him. Me? I was lost. _

_So I just sat there enjoying the homey kitchen smells and the sight of Annie's back as she worked. I felt more than a little uncomfortable. It must have shown on my face because when she turned to me and caught my eye she smiled. "Not used to just sitting are you?" It was more of a statement than a question. "No. Not really." I answered sheepishly, rising from my chair. "Oh don't get up, I kind of like seeing the warrior at rest." She teased. Warrior? Me? "Well, that's definitely one of the nicer things I've been called over the years. Don't know if it fits, but I'll take it." A flash of mischief in those soulful eyes and her back was to me again. Is this what 'normal' is? I'll never really be sure, but I sure want more. _

_I found myself gravitating toward her, just wanting to be closer. I leaned down and tucked my chin just above her shoulder to get a better look at what she was doing. "Need any help?" It was a token question since it was pretty obvious that she had everything under control. Not expecting an answer I wasn't surprised by the 'no thanks' I got. What did surprise me was that she stepped back a little to better fit against me. It was the most natural thing in the world for me to wrap an arm around her waist and just hold her as she finished putting the salad together. So far it had been easy to slip back into the kids we once were, but now there was no denying the fact that we weren't that little any more. For the first time in my life I could picture myself twenty years in the future, standing in that same spot holding Annie close as she puttered around the kitchen. For a moment it was easy to forget about werewolves and demons and spirits._

_Then she finished what she was doing and turned into me. Our eyes met. My breath caught at the look I found there. Most women get this soft, tender kind of look in their eyes when they want to be kissed. Take my word for it, I've acted on that look often enough to know. Actually come to think of it I don't think I've ever passed up the opportunity to act on that look. That was the look she sent my way. _

_There were no words, none were necessary. She pulled my hand off the counter next to us and joined it with the other which now rested on the small of her back. Her arms went around my neck and before I knew it she was gently pulling me down to kiss her. I don't think I really believed it was happening until I felt the warm softness of her lips on mine. One touch and my heart stopped. One more and it started again, pounding against the walls of my chest as if it wanted to break free of my body._

_I'm not sure how long we stood that way. I remember wishing it would never end. If I had been lost all this time, I found myself again right there in the middle of the kitchen with her._

_God only knows I've kissed more than my share of women over time… and then some. Annie though, well she was different. Special._

_All my life I've firmly believed that Dad and Sammy were home. As long as I had them I didn't need a house or an address. I always knew what Sammy meant when he talked about there being more to life than hunting, but I never really understood why he wanted to walk away so badly until now. I still believe in it, all of it… only now that belief includes one more person. I found home again in Annie's arms. _

_**A pleasant surprise**_

_He absolutely amazes me. I couldn't have been gone more than fifteen minutes, running out to get potatoes to go with the steaks. It's the least I could do since Annie was going to all that trouble just to give us a home cooked meal. And when I got back… well._

_The last home cooked meal I had… Jess cooked it the day before Dean showed up at Stanford. Hard to believe it's barely been a year. Now this stuff about Dean having nightmares… and Annie who we're sending away in the morning for her safety. The least I could do was give them a few minutes alone. Maybe he'd actually say something to her about how he feels. Ha, yeah right. What am I thinking? This is Dean, right?_

_So this is what I'm thinking of while I'm picking up potatoes of all things. Not chips, actual real potatoes. I still had Jess, and Dean's journal entries on my mind as I walked back into the house. I swear… fifteen minutes later at the most. I might have noticed how quiet the house had become compared to when I left, but that's not what caught my attention and pulled me out of my thoughts. I'm just assuming about the quiet because when I finally dragged myself back to earth… well I was met with the sight of Dean and Annie practically devouring each other right in the middle of the kitchen._

_It's not that I've never walked in on him doing that kind of thing before. Let's face it, Dean has three main priorities in life: family, hunting and women. Family always comes first, then the other two tie for second. If he can mix them all the better. The thing is he always does that kind of thing on a one-night, no-strings basis. The only exception he ever made had been Cassie. Even with her, when it was all over and it was time to leave there had been no question that he would go. Dad and I needed him, there was evil out there to fight, people to save and he was going to do it. That's just all there was to it. At least that was his official story. _

_At the time I suspected he left because he knew it would hurt her less that way. Watching him go once would be easier, rather than watching him come and go all the time. I don't think he wanted her to wait and worry that he might not come back, hunt after hunt. Now I suspect it probably had more to do with his memories of the Morgans. _

_So for him to make that step… with all the history that was between them. He may not even have realized it yet, but he was in this one for the long haul. _

_To say that walking in on them was a shock would be the understatement of the century._

_Still, being the sensitive one about these kinds of things I kind of coughed quietly from the doorway to let them know I was back. Dean turned around so fast I thought for sure he'd fall over. He didn't though. Instead he stood tall, tucking Annie safely behind him. He was ready to fight if whatever it was that had distracted him turned out to be unfriendly. He relaxed right away when he saw it was just me… at least until he realized what I had just walked in on. I'm twenty-two years old and I've never once see Dean blush… I couldn't help it. "What a delightful shade of red Dean. That color man, it really suits you." Oh, if looks could kill._

_Annie was able to see the humor in it. She was laughing too until she saw the look on his face. When she saw how upset he was she pointed an oven-mitted hand at me to lighten the mood "That's enough of that now, or there'll be no cookies for you." The new distraction worked perfectly. Dean often listens to his stomach, a whole lot more often than he listens to his 'downstairs brain' and that's saying an awful lot._

_Like a big kid, the mention of cookies was enough to change his mood completely. "Cookies? Does that mean they're ready?" he asked as she pulled the steaming tray out of the oven. "They are." She answered, deftly swatting away the hand that reached passed her to try and steal one. "and they are for after supper. Dean Winchester I am not cooking all this food just so you can fill up on cookies." It was too much. My brother was being scolded. He tried his best wounded puppy look and found no sympathy. Well, that's not entirely true. She did kiss him again._

"_Getting a little rusty there Dean?" I asked him, enjoying the fact that I could be the one poking fun at him for a change. "I am not getting rusty. She kissed me didn't she?" "Sure, but did you get the cookie?" I asked innocently. "What can I say Sam? The woman enjoys torturing me. I mean, why else would she bake cookies right under my nose and then refuse to let me eat them?" he grumbled. _

_I still don't believe it. Dean: demon hunter, skirt chaser, unshakable older brother, destroyer of all that is evil daring to cross his path, etc…etc…had become domesticated on me literally overnight. It was nice to see the hard shell he'd built up around himself over the years melt a little like that._


	9. Chapter 9 Building Momentum

_**Calling in a favor**_

_I called Missouri earlier today. Boy was _that _a fun conversation. I swear the woman enjoys making things hard for me. She does it to entertain herself whenever she gets the chance. You'd think that psychic thing of hers would have tipped her off to the seriousness of the situation… maybe it did. I just don't know._

_She made me spell it out for her in detail. The whole story from the very beginning. The Morgans, the werewolves, the history, Annie and Jack… Funny how the only time she sensed anything was when I tried to hold something back. Anyway, I asked her very nicely (all things considered) to take Annie in for a couple of days until Sam and I could finish the job here. For what may possibly be the first time ever the woman agreed with me on something: Annie should be somewhere safe far away from this whole mess. _

"_Well of course I'll take care of the dear girl for you. You go on ahead and send Sam down here with her like you planned. She'll be safe here with me, I'll see to it." Of course she was right about my wanting Sammy to drive her down, but I hadn't mentioned it. Typical Missouri. Still, she'd agreed and so Annie would go. Oh, she'd be more than a little angry about it… _

_Kansas is an entire day's drive away and I know Annie wanted a hand in the fight. She and Missouri could plot my demise together for the few days it would take and then follow through when I come back to pick her up and bring her home. As long as she was out of harms way I didn't care._

"_Oh and one more thing honey. Don't you dare go out and act on that damn fool idea of yours. You know the one I'm talking about… the one you hatched up to give yourself an extra advantage over those horrible things. Mark my words boy, it will end badly." Oh sure, so now she knows exactly what I'm thinking. Where was that when I had to spill my guts about my childhood memories? "Thanks Missouri. I'll give it some thought. See you in a few days." _

_**Calm before the storm**_

_That last night went by quietly. We ate like kings, thanks to Annie. Steaks in mushroom sauce, baked potatoes with all the trimmings, a huge salad and fresh baked rolls... and the still-warm cookies for dessert. We must have eaten twice our weight in food. I even went back for a third helping… of everything. What was I supposed to do? I was hungry and she really knows how to cook._

_When Annie was sure we were all stuffed, the leftovers (what little there was left) were stored in the fridge. She would have started on the dishes too, but I wouldn't have it. I sat her down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee instead and dragged Sammy over to the sink. I figure if Frances can make coffee and pancakes he can probably find his way around drying a dish too, right?_

_Well he wasn't too happy about it. Didn't take him long… he'd thought up a little pet name of his own for me. Sammy seemed to think it was funny that I knew how to wash a dish… something about my being a natural at it and that he'd never seen a dish so clean before. Smart ass. So dude decides it would be funny to call me 'Hazel'. Ha. ha. Not so much. I just shot him a disgusted look. It was a waste of time though. He was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes. I thought he would pass out from lack of oxygen or something. I swear he never learns. He just gave me a reason to think up something to top the 'Nair' incident. Heh heh, he who laughs last still has a full head of hair. I swear I will never wash another dish in front of him again. _

_Sam went up to bed early. I think he just wanted to give us some space since he walked in on us kissing before supper. Annie and I went up to bed early too. We didn't sleep though, at least not right away. Now, I know I'm nothing near being a gentleman but when it comes to stuff like that… let's just say we both fell asleep smiling and leave it at that, hm?_

I was up in the clearing again. The beast was snarling above me, trying to sink its teeth into me. I didn't give it the chance. I couldn't feel my hands, but I could see them gripping the knife and slashing away. Blood everywhere… Dad's voice calling out my name… I had a moment's hesitation. I'm not big enough to kill it, I'm only ten years old…

_I woke to darkness in Annie's room and in a panic when I realized the bed beside me was empty. I shouldn't have worried. She came through the bedroom door seconds later as I sat up ready to go off looking for her. There were two steaming mugs of something in her hands. The 'something' turned out to be warm milk with just a bit of honey. "I was wondering if you'd wake up. You were tossing and turning in your sleep. Figured if you did, you might want something to help you relax." _

_Being with Annie is peace. Who else would think to make me warm milk in the middle of the night? That's why I'm being so stubborn about sending her away. I can't risk losing her. I won't._

_We curled up under the blankets together, our stomachs warm and full from the milk and I just held her. There were stars blinking lazily in the sky, and the light from the almost full moon fell across the spot where we lay. It played in the golden highlights of her hair turning them silver in the weak light. "I love you Dean." She whispered softly into the darkness. For the second time that night my heart stopped beating. "I love you too Annie." I whispered back, pulling her a little closer against me. She dozed off on a blissful sigh. I followed her a minute or two later. There were no more dreams for me that night. _

_**A single step/ momentum begins**_

_Sam woke us up just after sunrise like I'd asked him to. They had to hit the road if he was going to make the drive before nightfall. The miserable cold drizzle outside seemed to reflect our moods as I walked them out to the car. Sam couldn't understand why I was staying behind and he was really vocal about not liking it. Annie didn't want to leave…at all. I wasn't looking forward to two days alone in that empty house, the prospect of which was making me moody. It had to be done though. There was no other way._

_We kissed as if it would be our last, trying hard to make it enough to last us both through the days ahead. When we finally parted I opened the passenger side door for her. I'll see you in a couple of days, when I pick you up… okay?" voice hoarse with emotion I mercilessly held back the tears. It was ridiculous to act that way. I was going to be picking her up in four days for crying out loud. Who knew saying goodbye would turn out to be so damned hard? _

"_Okay, a couple of days. I'm holding you to it Dean. Be careful!" She was worried I wouldn't make it through this and neither she or Sam knew where they were headed yet. It didn't matter to her though because she trusted me. I had promised her I'd finish this and then come and get her. I would._

"_So where am I taking her Dean?" That expressive face of his didn't even try to hide the frustration he felt. "Missouri Moseley's. You better get going too 'cause I'm going to need you back here by tomorrow night." His mouth fell open, he hadn't been expecting it. "Missouri's? But…have you lost your mind? That's all the way in Kansas!" "Yeah I know. How many werewolves do you think'll travel all the way out to Kansas just for one meal?" "But Dean…" "No buts man. You don't have the time for them. I called her to let her know you're coming and she's expecting you before dark." He said nothing. Just stood there staring at me in disbelief. "I'd get going if I were you. The woman's got a temper… I wouldn't want to keep her waiting if I were you. Her mean streak comes out when she's irritated. Trust me, I know from experience." That got him moving, but he didn't get in the car, just leaned on the roof._

"_So what exactly will you be doing while I chauffer your girlfriend halfway across the country?" I was hoping he wouldn't ask. "I… uh…" how to dodge without tipping him off? "I have an idea I'm working on that might give us an extra edge when the time comes." What? I told him the truth… just not all of it. "Now get going already! You're wasting daylight." I didn't want her anywhere near outdoors after dark. Not even in Kansas. Not until this was over. _

_Sam must have understood because he didn't argue or ask any more questions. He got behind the wheel and the Impala roared to life. "Call if you run into any problems on the way there Sam. Oh, and call me when you get to Missouri's so I know you made it there alright." Sam chuckled to himself and Annie waved as the car began to move. He was driving away with my girl, and my baby. It almost killed me. The sooner he got there and came back here, the better. _

_The first step had been taken. It wouldn't be long now. The next few days would fly by as momentum built and soon it would all be over. _


	10. Chapter 10 Franconia Notch, NH

_**3 days later: the clearing at Franconia Notch, New Hampshire**_

_The wolf pack had them surrounded, circling them like they were cattle for the slaughter. It was hard to believe that somewhere inside those snarling hairy creatures were people, trapped and unable to control themselves. There were kids in there, and Jack… It was impossible to tell which one he was. _

_The boys were finding it hard to fend off the werewolves without severely injuring them. It was impossible to tell which ones were still human enough to survive the alpha wolf's death. Somehow, they managed to keep them away…but they wouldn't be able to keep it up for long._

_Jack had told them that werewolves were afraid of fire. It quickly became clear that they weren't nearly as afraid of it as regular wolves tend to be when Sam built up a good sized campfire in the middle of the clearing. Actually it looked more like a pyre or a bonfire. Sam had MacGyvered a couple of torches out of tree branches among other things, and was waving them around ninja style as Dean sized up the werewolves. He would have laughed except he was too busy scanning the circling monsters, looking for _him. _The wolf who would end it all. They were all so huge!_

_Dean Winchester does not get intimidated by the things he hunts… he does have a healthy respect for the supernatural that can, um, very occasionally be mistaken for fear… but there is never any doubt in his mind that ultimately all the things they faced, every last one of them, could be beaten. These werewolves… they scared the living hell out of him and had since he was ten years old._

_He scanned the pack of dogs frantically as they inched closer and closer, leaving Sam and him less and less room to move around the fire. They had six different guns between them, filled with silver bullets for the job. None of it would do them any good though if they were wasted on the others. If they didn't kill the alpha wolf tonight, it would just start all over again. _

"_Dean, they're getting closer.!" "Yeah, I see that Sam!" "We're going to have to do it soon. Which one is it?" Dean didn't answer, he couldn't answer. The lead wolf was nowhere in sight. He heard a yelp and Sammy's shout of surprise as one of the younger wolves got bold and jumped at him. He jumped back again with the smell of singed fur. Sam turned wide, urgent eyes to his brother. "DEAN! Which ONE?" But Dean didn't hear his brother yell. All he saw was the huge ugly beast with the glowing black eyes and matted tangled pelt of fur that did nothing to hide the thickly scarred skin beneath it. He was the one. Their eyes locked and Dean knew the time had come. They would fight to the death. The werewolf was there for him, and he for it and neither would stop until one of them bled their last drop. _

_Sam heard the growling, low and guttural. Completely animal in nature. He didn't expect it to come from his brother. Dean's eyes had an unearthly green glow to them and were glued on one of the wolves. Suddenly Sam realized what was happening. It was Him, the one they were here for. The alpha wolf._

_All at once Dean and the monster began to move. Sam watched in horror as they ran at each other full tilt, intent only on each other and death. "DEAN!" All he saw was dirt, fur and clothing in a roiling heap on the ground. All he could do was warn off the other beasts from the scene as best he could. He didn't want to kill any of them (they were people after all) but he would if it meant the difference between living or dying himself._

_There were six beasts in the clearing, seven with the monster that Dean was fighting for his life with. The knife that usually sat under his pillow was in his hands now, neatly carving away at the monster above him. The blade had been forged of silver which was why their father had thrown it to him that far off night. Again Dean used it, and used it well. _

_Part of him wanted to slash away at the damn thing until there was only blood and carcass left of him. The sane part of him just wanted to gain enough ground to be able to pull out the gun he had tucked into his jeans. No matter what happened, there was an excellent chance he would end up with teeth marks somewhere on his body… and not the good kind either. _

_They tumbled over, under and around each other until finally the last sixteen years came around full circle._

_The werewolf had Dean pinned beneath its massive frame. Its claws dug into his thighs and shoulders, drawing first blood. He had just enough room to move his arms and kept slashing away at it. The familiarity of it all hit home. He'd been in this exact position before. He was scared. Suddenly he was ten years old again and screaming out his rage and anguish._

_Dean heard a voice call out his name. It was asking if he was okay, but he couldn't answer. Using all of the strength he had, he shoved upwards on the beast with both hands and feet. The wolf went soaring over Dean's head to land a good seven or eight feet away. He didn't wait to see what would happen next. His feet found the ground beneath him and started running. "SAM! Shoot it, NOW!" The words were barely out of his mouth when Sam saw the wolf pounce on Dean from behind. _

_His brother was pinned to the ground on his stomach, completely vulnerable and unable to move. "SAMMY!" it was a cry of anguish. The wolf lifted its head and let out a stomach churning howl that was met with answer calls from the others. Just as it started to bend its head to go for the kill two voices rang out on the night air. "Dean, NO!" Two shots fired in unison. The first came from Sammy and hit the werewolf squarely in the middle of its forehead. The other came from trees somewhere to the left of them. It went straight through the wolfs body from shoulder to shoulder, hitting the heart somewhere along the way._

_It fell off Dean, growling and bearing its teeth even though it couldn't move its own body. Sam came running to his brother's side to help him up. Out of the tree line, a figure emerged from the cloud of smoke that had come from the old rifle used to finish the alpha dog off. It walked gingerly through the clearing as the other wolves fell to the ground, one after the other. Some were changing, others were dying. It was almost over. _

_Feeling a little safer now that the werewolf was on its deathbed, Dean leaned his weight on Sam. One supported the other as they doggedly walked toward the approaching figure, both trying to make out who it was. Normally their first guess would have been their father, except that there was no way this was John Winchester. He was bigger, taller… the boys still saw him as larger than life really. This guy was tall and slim, and from the looks of it probably had his hair tied back in a ponytail? What the..? That didn't describe anyone they knew. _

_Dean saw something move out of the corner of his eye, just out of his line of sight. The alpha wolf was rising one last time. At the exact moment it leaped into the air Annie emerged from the trees and smoke. The s-o-b was headed straight for her. Acting on instinct and adrenaline he tossed his knife with all his might, then dropped to the ground and grabbed up one of the torches Sam had dropped. He ran at the beast head on, murder in his eyes. _

_Sam aimed his weapon in the same direction Dean had made his toss and watched the knife bury itself to the hilt into the back of the werewolf's skull. He didn't hear the sickening crunch, but knew that it had been there. Annie jumped back as it dropped instantly to the ground just beyond her feet. That wasn't good enough for Dean though, no he had to be sure. He brought the torch down as hard as he could on its exposed underbelly and set the damned thing on fire. A gut wrenching sound filled the air around them and echoed of the mountains and rocks around them. It wasn't quite a moan or a growl yet still a combination of both and it was definitely not human. The flaming pile at Dean's feet convulsed once, twice then went still for the last time. Dead at last._

_The other werewolves were beginning to transform. The missing kids huddled together, a tattered and shell shocked bunch by the fireside. The couple that had gone missing were sitting nearby too holding on to each other as if their lives depended on it and thanking God they had both come out of it in one piece. None of them were Jack though. He was nowhere to be seen._

_It wasn't long before they heard the rustling in the brush surrounding them. There had obviously been more than just seven in the pack. Sam, Dean and Annie found them scattered in the brush leading up to the cave. All had retained their animal form. It had been far too late for them. Still no sign of Jack though. Would they be able to find him? Dean wondered. The beasts all looked pretty much the same… just in different sizes. Then as they came closer to the mouth of the cave and the body count climbed still higher, he saw Annie stop in her tracks. There were fifteen others, twenty two in all. The five survivors by the fire in the clearing, three in the brush, a dozen just inside the cave… and Jack._

_They found him in the middle of a pool of blood, whether it was his own…impossible to tell. He lay on his back with his face turned up to the night sky, completely at peace. From the look of the scene he had kept the rest of the pack away from them during the fight. Using nothing but his own body he had kept them from leaving the cave. A dozen angry werewolves and he had fought them off all by himself. It had been his one last desperate bid for control over the monster within him and it had been a battle won. Unlike the other more seasoned werewolves, in death Jack had returned to himself._


	11. Chapter 11 A Time for Everything

**_A time for everything_**

_I was absolutely FURIOUS! What the hell had she been thinking? What did she think she'd been doing coming back here…and so help me…shooting the damned lead wolf? The woman had lost her freaking mind! I mean, it lunged at her on its death bed…and even before that…before she took the shot. Any one of the other werewolves could have attacked her, bitten her or killed her. We wouldn't have known she needed help. We couldn't have saved her because we thought she was all the way out in Kansas! _

_Tossing the dead werewolves on the pyre only fuelled my anger. Every heavy, hairy dead carcass I struggled to carry had been a possible threat to her life. Every smelly crackling mass on the fire had been an attacker lying in wait as she strolled up here all by herself with suicidal disregard for her own life. I could barely even look at her I was so damned mad. I could have lost her!_

_I wallowed in my anger through the clean up. It kept me going, helped me move through the pain. It felt like it took forever, until at last the only ones left were survivors… and Jack._

_She was sitting on the ground, covered in blood and grime, cradling Jack's head tenderly in her lap. There were tears in her eyes, and streaming down her cheeks. Ah hell! How am I supposed to be mad at her when she cries? I can't be. So I sat down next to her and stowed my anger deep inside me until later. There would be a time and a place for me to let it out, but now wasn't it. She needed me. _

_Wanting to make it easier for her, to share something meaningful that would help her come to terms with losing him all over again, I somehow found the words. "You know… that last night years ago Jack said something to me that, at the time, I couldn't understand." I hesitated, chancing a look at her to see if she was actually listening. She didn't look up, just gently brushed Jack's hair back from his forehead as if he were a child. Not knowing what else to do I cleared my throat and went on. "Before we left that morning he told me… he said he hoped that one day he'd be half the man I already was. I didn't understand why he would say that to me…I was just a kid. I still don't understand what he saw in me that day for him to say that. I'll tell you what I do know though… Jack spent the past sixteen years watching over you, taking care of you and keeping you safe without your knowledge. It must have killed him to watch you grow up and not be able to be there…He gave everything he had to you… I think…I think your parents would have been proud of him… and…and I hope one day I'll be half the man he was." Annie didn't say anything, I don't think she could have even if she'd tried. The only part of her that moved was the arm she stretched out in invitation to me. I took it in my own and shifted myself closer to her so she could lean on me and cry. _

_Sam came out of the darkness again and looked at me sadly. "That's the last one Dean." He knew what would come next. Annie did too. I just hoped she was ready for it. "Sweetheart…it's time." She turned into my shoulder and let out a quiet sob. "I know…it just hurts so much…" That's all it took. That was it for me. I melted inside. "Oh Annie…I know it does. I know." I held her close and shushed softly in her ear. "I know it's hard honey, but we have to do it. He'd want us to." They were the words she needed to hear. I felt it the moment she made up her mind. _

_She sat up and sighed, the tears still streaming down her face. Wiping them away with fierce determination she sighed again, then steadied herself for what we were about to do. "All right then" she announced "let get to it." Obviously feeling lost she looked to me for strength. "Dean, will you help me to do it?" Like there was any way I could resist those sad doe eyes. Besides, she was right, Jack would have wanted it this way. _

_We didn't toss him onto the bonfire like we did the others. Instead we built something resembling a funeral pyre. Annie wanted it to be special for him. Knowing what kind of things were out there in the night, and knowing how most of them came to be, she wanted to give him a chance to move on. So we lay him on top of the unlit kindling as Sam recited a short but powerful blessing from one of the many books he has stashed in the trunk of the Impala. Annie ceremoniously lit the kindling and as the fire burned turning Jack to ash and dust in the distance the rock and roll music he'd loved played on. _

_**Hell hath no fury…**_

_We called the cops in just before sunrise. It didn't take them long to have the whole place taped off with nothing short of an army swarming all over like so many ants looking for crumbs. We'd left them nothing substantial of course, nothing but a bunch of burned out logs and kindling. The story we'd given them? Wolves. Heh heh. It wasn't that far from the truth after all, and it was a story that would be easy for the kids to stick to. Perfect._

_I had a hard time fending off the paramedics who wanted to take me to a hospital. Then there were the police who had about a million questions about what happened, when and how. I did my best to make the story as believable as possible… turns out I didn't have to try too hard. They bought it pretty quickly. _

_The kids were whisked away to their families as soon as it was clear their injuries weren't more than surface scratches, burns and bruises. The young couple took the ambulance ride to the hospital. I felt for them…the experience had changed them. How could it not? It was pretty clear when the ambulance left that they were both in shock. It was a raw deal, I just hoped it wouldn't stick with them past the odd nightmare. _

_The police had been dealt with and an end was in sight. Sam and Annie came up behind me as I thanked the last officer. A worried Sam put a steady arm on my shoulder as I swayed a bit. The sun was rising finally and as it did the adrenaline that had been keeping me going all this time began to ebb. I wasn't ready to give in to it yet though, there were still a couple of things I needed to take care of. Besides, if I gave in to my exhaustion and passed out they'd probably haul me off to the hospital too. I've seen more than enough of those to last a lifetime and I didn't want to go back for a few scratches and a little tiredness. _

_So I stood up a little straighter and shook him off. First things first I had to know that he was alright. Aside from a couple of nasty looking claw marks on his arms and a lot of dirt and soot he was just fine. Once I was positive of that, I turned to Annie. I went to her a man in the desert to an oasis. Running my fingers over her face, my hands into her hair, up and down her arms I asked her question after question and swore that if I found more than the smallest scratch on her I'd take her straight to the hospital. Somehow she caught my hands in hers and stopped their roaming. Before I knew it she was in my arms and I was holding her to me trying hard not to cry. "You're sure you're fine? Nothing more than a couple of scratches?" I asked hoarsely. She nodded and laughed a little at my concern. I don't know why but the combination of my relief and her laughter triggered my anger again. I kissed her forehead, taking a minute to just be happy she was alive… and then slowly let the my anger seep back in. I took one last long look at her and then cocked my head towards the car. It had been a long, long night, it was time to go. "What about you Dean? Are _you_ okay?" Annie asked, worried that I was still more than a little unsteady on my feet. "Yeah Dean, you're looking pretty rough around the edges. Are you sure you won't let any of the doctors take a look at you?" Ah, great! Now she had Sam worried too. "I'm fine Sam, let's just go home." I caught Annie's eye and cocked my head toward the car. "Get in the car Annie. We're going home." It came out a lot harsher than I expected. She must have known I was close to cracking because she chose her battles. Annie Morgan does not back down when she believes she is right, but she was not about to push me to the edge when I looked like I would pass out just from standing there. Instead she got in like I'd told her to and Sam took the wheel._

_I don't remember climbing in myself… and I think I probably slept the entire half hour drive back to the house. I woke up to the sound of the Impala's wheels turning onto the gravel of the driveway. Sore all over, cuts burning, gashes stinging…I was a throbbing mass of pain and flesh. I was tired, dirty and starving. I couldn't decide whether I wanted a shower, a bed, a meal or all three. I didn't think I had enough energy to get out of the car let alone into the house for any of those things. I didn't think I could even lift my head off the headrest…until I had a flash of the night before. As I started really waking up the night before hit me full on in the form of a crystal clear memory of Annie coming out of the smoke, and the werewolf making a jump for her. Then it wasn't a matter of not being able to go inside, it was a matter of not wanting to._

_Sam was opening my door, ready to carry me in if he had to. Again I brushed him off. "Sam. I'm fine." I told him tersely. "Oh you are, are you?" It wasn't Sam, but Annie. I gave her a dirty look. "Yes actually. I am." "Really? It's funny you should say that because from where I'm standing you look like death warmed over." Nice. "Thanks Annie. It's nice of you to point that out for me. All things considered I'll take 'death warmed over' against just plain dead. You know, since I just took on a werewolf with nothing but my knife and a homemade torch." Her face turned an interesting shade of pink as she built up steam. "Yeah, about that Dean. What the hell we're you thinking taking him on with practically your bare hands anyway?" Come again? "What the hell was I…?Not that I need to explain myself here, but _I _was doing my _job._ Never mind me. What the hell were you thinking shooting at the damned thing? Better yet, what the hell were you doing at Franconia Notch in the first place?" fury didn't even begin to describe what I was feeling. "If I remember correctly, I was quite literally saving your ass Dean!" _

_Sammy had that 'oh shit!' look on his face as he gracefully bowed out, mumbling something about going inside and making some coffee. I would have laughed if I hadn't been so pissed off. "Yeah, damn fine job you did too: putting yourself right in the line of fire. You're damn lucky my aim wasn't off after it dug its claws in me like that. If I had missed with the knife you'd be dead!" That's when she hit me with it: her reason for coming back early. "Yeah, well I'd rather be dead then see you turn into one of them dammit!" The words stopped me cold. Even Sam, who hadn't yet made it into the house, stopped and turned in his tracks. There was no possible way she could know… still I was walking on eggshells with this one. "That thing never got its mouth near enough to take a bite Annie…" better to play dumb than shoot myself in the foot, right? Unfortunately it was too late for that. _

"_What's she talking about Dean?" He saw me swallow, saw me hesitate, knew I didn't want to answer. I was hiding something and he wouldn't let me alone until I told him what it was. I'd be damned if I did. No way. "Go ahead and tell him Dean." She was forcing my hand, trying to goad me into saying it. "Tell him what? There's nothing to tell." "Nothing to tell, huh?" she said coming closer. Until then I had been right in her face. When she started coming towards me though I knew what she was after. I wasn't about to let her. "Yeah, that's right. Nothing to tell. Sam was there remember? Backing me up while I saved your pretty little ass." Good old belligerent Dean… too bad it didn't work worth a damn. "Oh he was there last night all right, but not for this. He was driving back from Kansas." I backed up a little further when she reached for my left arm. When I felt the cold metal of the car through my shirt I knew she had me. She unbuttoned my sleeve and pushed it up past my elbow exposing a perfect oval bite mark halfway between my wrist and elbow. My real reason for not going along with them to Kansas out in the open for everyone to see. _

_I looked right past her at Sam. "Dean… what did you do?" it was a whisper but he may as well have shouted it at the top of his lungs.The effect would have been the same, it cut right through me. Suddenly all the fight in me was gone. "It doesn't matter Sam. What's done is done. It's over now. Everything is okay." "Doesn't matter? Are you out of your mind?" Sam didn't stay stunned long, and Annie didn't let up for a second. "Missouri told me what you'd done about an hour after Sam left. She said she told you not to, but that you were going to go ahead and do it anyway…" she took a deep breath and traced the puffy red toothmarks with her fingertips. "You and Sam would both have died if I hadn't come back… or rather Sam would have died, you would have become just like Jack." "and if I hadn't we would never have beaten it. Sam and I couldn't do it on our own, and Jack couldn't help unless he became an alpha wolf himself… it was my idea, he did it. It was the only way." "The only way? You're kidding right?" I've never seen Sam so shocked. 'Look, it was a stupid thing to do… I know that… but it worked. If I hadn't had that extra strength the werewolf would have finished me the first time it pinned me down. If Jack hadn't done it he could never have gone against the pack and kept them in the cave. We'd all be dead." I looked at them both and watched the horrified look in their eyes as they realized how close things had come. Well at least now they understood where I was coming from. Not that it would change what had happened…_

_I should have at least told Sam what I was going to do…I'd been so gung ho about getting the job done and keeping him and Annie safe that it never occurred to me the idea might be a bad one. I hung my head suddenly very tired. "I'm sorry… I swear I will never do something stupid like that again. No without telling you about it." My anger was gone, it was over and all I wanted to do now was sleep._

_I was running on empty. I had all but used up what little strength I had regained in the car during the argument. My whole body was numb and throbbing. Weak and lightheaded, the whole world shifted beneath me. Wait, this isn't right… I don't do fainting…well apparently my body felt otherwise because the world went black and silent around me and I went down. _Hard


	12. Chapter 12 Dark Night to Morning Light

_**From the dark night into the morning light**_

_I don't know how long I was out…I came to on the couch with a grunt of surprise. Something was wrong with my arm. The burning had turned into searing pain. Something was holding it out with the bite mark up. I tried to pull back but whatever it was held firm. "Settle down son, we're almost done." Was that…? I knew that voice, but it couldn't be? I tried to sit up and was surprised to realize that someone was holding me down. "Dad?" I asked. My voice sounded scared and far away, as if it was someone else's. "What are you doing here Dad?" "Dean, you've got to stop moving. You'll make it worse." It was Sam. Sam was the someone holding me down. Sitting on me actually. "Sam? Get off me dude. We're not kids anymore…" I felt a tug on my arm and the pain was back again. "Listen to your brother Dean. Stop moving it's almost done." It WAS Dad. How long had I been out? What was going on? Again the pain, right where Jack had bitten me. It was torture!_

_I thought it was Dad, doing whatever it was that hurt so bad to my arm. Then as I regained feeling in it I realized one hand was griping my wrist and the other was holding my shoulder keeping my whole arm still. Someone else was torturing me. The third time the pain came I screamed. "What in the hell are you guys doing to me?" It came out an anguished, angry moan. _

_Somewhere in the haze of pain I heard a frustrated female grunt, and then she was inches from my face. "Dean Winchester if you don't stop moving around this instant you'll have a lot more to worry about than a werewolf bite on the arm. Do you hear me?" "Annie? What are you talking about?" "The bite on your arm is what I am talking about. It, and the claw marks that you have pretty much all over your body puffed up. That's why you passed out. I'm trying to fix it so stop squirming like a four year old." "Fix it? How? By burning my arm off?" I asked angrily. As if I hadn't been through enough this past week, now I was going to lose an arm because she wanted to 'fix' it? _

_Sam was laughing again. That was a good sign. He wouldn't be laughing at me if I was going to die right? Dad was looking back and forth between Annie and me with a funny look on his face as we snapped at each other. "For your information dear, I am applying a really strong poultice and trying to dress the area so it'll stay clean. I've been at it awhile now, I'm tired of it and I'd like to finish up. So if it's all the same to you keep your stubborn behind and the rest of you still or I'll make it hurt more than I have to." "That's some bedside manner you've got there doc." I criticized caustically. "Oh suck it up and take it like a man already." She snapped back with a nasty scowl. My eyes went wide, I hadn't been expecting it but I recovered pretty quickly. I started muttering under my breath about how the woman had to be some distant relation to Dr. Kevorkian or something, just loud enough for everyone to hear. _

_Sam was shaking so hard from laughter that I thought for sure he'd break one of my ribs, maybe all of them… and then Dad was laughing too for the first time I could remember. A deep, rumbling belly type laugh. It was a sound I don't think I've heard since before mom died. I was so surprised by the sound that I froze. I was afraid to move or even speak in case he stopped. Annie, of course, stubborn as she is, took that as my submission to her demands. It didn't take more than a minute for her to spread the rest of the god-awful stuff on my arm and then wrap it up. She taped the bandage on so well that I doubted I would have any hair left on my arm after it came off. _

_Now that it was finished Sam got off me and Dad let my arm go. They were both still laughing hysterically although by now the surprised had worn off and I was not impressed with either of them. I sat up slowly, finding out as I did that I had patches of bandage that covered burning wounds pretty much all over my body just as Annie had said. Another thing that came to my attention was the fact that I was wearing nothing but my boxers. If Sam laughed any harder, which I doubt is possible, he might have passed out from lack of oxygen. _

_I must have fought them pretty hard because there were red marks on my arms and legs where dad had held me down for Annie to finish the job. I was determined not to show embarrassment at my current situation, so the first thing I said was the first question that came to mind. "So, are either of you going to stop laughing long enough to tell me what the hell happened?" Dad just wheezed happily, and Sam…well he just couldn't let it go. _

_Annie came back from the kitchen with a steaming mug in her hands. "Have a coffee Dean. Supper is almost ready. You'll feel a lot better after you eat." She would have gone back to the kitchen had Dad not stopped her. "You did a fine job Annie. Go sit down, you earned a rest. Sam and I will finish up in the kitchen." That's when I saw how tired she really was. Again I wondered just how long I had been unconscious. _

_Turns out I was out for the better part of two days. The first day had been the worst. Sam had called Dad because he just didn't know what to do. Nothing he and Annie had tried did any good. I started hallucinating and having nightmares…I didn't remember any of it. Any sudden movement and I was across the room and prepared to tear a strip out of whatever startled me. _

_When Dad told them about the poultice he'd used years before they knew it was what they needed. Unfortunately once it was made they couldn't get anywhere near me to put it on my wounds. Had Dad not showed up when he did… well let's just say I'd be in much worse shape then I am now. _

_Annie didn't sleep, or at least not much. They couldn't move me from the living room because I wouldn't let them. They also couldn't get Annie upstairs to get some rest. She refused to let me out of her sight. Once that woman has made up her mind, there's no changing it. _

_**The aftermath of actions**_

_Annie had curled up on the couch and lay sleeping with her head in my lap as Dad told me about the last couple of days. "I've got to say it Dean: asking Jack to bite you like that was a damn fool thing to do. I don't want to hear about you doing _anything_ like that _ever _again. If you boys hadn't made it…If you had become…I would have had to come back and finish the job. Do you realize what that would have meant doing? Hunting the things that we do is hard enough already. To hunt my own son? It would kill me." He had the same look that had been on his face the day he told me mom was never coming home again. "Yes, sir." It was there and then it was gone, and he was talking to me again. "Good. That being said… I'm proud of you son." _

_Twenty six years, he'd never said those words, not even once. Suddenly I was ten years old again, confused but happy. Proud to be me for a change. "As for that girl…" he said nodding to Annie, whose hair I was combing gently with my fingers as she slept. "I wouldn't walk away from this one as quickly as you usually do." He chuckled a little "In all my years I have never seen anyone as stubborn as you, until her. This one…she's good for you." I didn't know what to say. _

_He was right of course…and for once I didn't want to walk away. My god, and I thought those werewolves were scary? This thing I was considering…sticking around, being with her…could I possibly ask that of her? To put up with the life? The worry? The danger? Could I keep her safe through all that? Would she even let me give her the choice? Somehow I had a feeling she'd already made up her mind about it. Asking was no longer an option. _

_Later that night Sam helped me up the stairs to bed. Three days of fighting off my past…rough around the edges was putting it mildly. He waited until he was sure I was comfortable and then sat down next to me. "You scared the hell out of me the other day Dean. Like you went completely suicidal on me, or something." I was in no shape to fight off the chick flick moment…besides I owed him for all that had happened. "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you." "When I saw you run at that thing… then pinned down to the ground…and even after all that, when you passed out in the driveway with a werewolf bite on your arm… what were you thinking Dean? What could possibly have been going through your head when you made that decision?" _

_The entire range of emotion he must have felt over the last three days showed clearly on that damned expressive face of his…and then he took out that puppy look I could never say 'no' to. "I guess…I guess I wasn't thinking past keeping you guys alive and safe." Well, that's about as close to apologizing as I ever get. "Yeah, well… just promise me that next time you'll tell me your insane idea before you follow through on it… and include yourself in the 'keeping alive and safe' decisions for a change." "Yeah. I promise. I will." _

_I then yawned obnoxiously and closed my eyes. I might not be able to fight off the mushy stuff, but I could pretend I'm too tired for it. Heh heh, clever me. Sam saw right through it though. "Alright, quit faking it. I get it. I just have one last thing to say before I leave you alone. Dad and I … well things wouldn't be the same without you. Just remember that next time you decide to do something stupid. Alright?" I snored fakely and loudly from under my arm to lighten the mood. It worked too. He tossed a pillow at me, laughing again. It hurt like hell, but I got a laugh out of it too so it was worth it. _

_It took a long time for me to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. I ended up flat on my back trying hard not to put pressure on the darned patchwork of bandages when I finally drifted off. _


	13. Chapter 13 Encore: One More Time

_**Encore: one more time**_

It was dark, so incredibly dark. Dad and I were following wolf tracks up the Franconia Notch trail. Annie was gone and I wanted them all dead too. Dad had given me one of the shotguns loaded with silver bullets. We weren't really sure if it would work… But the plan was to kill the alpha wolf and get the hell out of there and that's exactly what we were going to do.

We found them just before midnight in a clearing about halfway up the foot trail. The sound of water surrounded us from the Flumes but even that didn't drown out the wet cracking sound of the wolves enjoying their meal. They'd somehow dragged up a cow. How the heck they'd got it up the rickety wooden stairs that were the only way up the flume walls I'll never know. There they were, ten of them crunching away at the Holstein's insides. Thank god it hadn't been a human, I think I would have thrown up. I was awfully close already.

It wasn't hard to tell which one was their leader. He had glowing red eyes, nasty sharp looking fangs and his pelt was tinted a light grey in the moonlight. Whenever he moved the wolves closest to him cringed away to a respectful distance. That was the one we needed to kill.

Dad took the first shot. It hit square in the old wolf's chest. The thing reared up on its hind legs and let out a blood curdling howl. I felt Dad's hand on my shoulder telling me to stay hidden right where I was before he moved a couple of feet away to take his next shot. We must have been downwind because one of the younger wolves in the pack had scented him. He was attacked as he took the second shot. The shot went wide and my heart stopped as I saw them both go down. They struggled against each other until Dad maneuvered himself underneath it and pushed its head as far up as it would go. "Do it now Dean!" he shouted, and I fired. I'll never be positive of what happened next… it happened so quickly and I was so scared. It could have just been my imagination but I swear that as it fell off dad it changed to human form and then back again. It was Jack. I swear to god it was Jack. That's when I gave us away. I screamed his name long and loud.

The lead wolf didn't go for Dad like we thought it would. It came straight for me instead. I just kept hitting and hitting it, trying to get the smelly bastard off of me. His foaming mouth and sharp teeth were inches away from the soft skin of my face. I should have been afraid but I wasn't. Instead I felt nothing but rage. It was _his_ fault they were all dead. The heat of my lust for revenge pumped through my veins, fuelling me and giving me the kind of strength no ten year old boy possessed. It wasn't until I felt its claws tear into my shoulders and calves that I finally tasted fear. It's flavor the thick and metallic one of my own blood. I heard a scream… loud and agonized… somewhere it registered that the scream was coming from me…

The hot breath in my face was overwhelming, and still I fought him off. The gashes on my shoulders and legs were on fire, making it hard for me to move. Somehow I did though. I thrashed around, trying hard to wrestle the beast so _it_ was the one laying on the ground. Dad yelled out to me just before I heard something imbed itself in the dirt just above my head. Even as the mangy thing stretched out above me, sniffing closer toward the shiny object, my fist closed around its hilt. I pulled the long, jagged edged knife out if its resting place in the ground just by my ear and turned all of my energy on the thing that stood on top of me. Everything else around us faded away, there was just the wolf and I fighting each other to live. For what seemed like forever all that existed were the sounds of my ragged breathing, the werewolf's snarls and the feel of the knife plunging into it over and over again. Nothing more than that mattered.

It was trying to sink its teeth into me but I didn't give it the chance. No longer able to feel my hands, I watched them gripping the knife and slashing away. There was blood everywhere… I could hear Dad's voice calling out my name… I had a moment's hesitation. Doubt started creeping in. I'm not big enough to kill it, I'm only ten years old…

The battle raged on silently. The snarling had stopped and I could hear Dad calling my name, desperation in his voice. It filled the silence and rang in my ears. He was praying, screaming out the prayer. "God please let him be alive, please let him not be bitten, please let my boy be alright." The chant bounced around my head and still I slashed away until finally a single shot rang out in the dark just beyond my line of vision and the weight above me moved away. I blacked out.

I couldn't see. My first coherent thought was that I couldn't see. I think I may have screamed it, although I can't be sure. There was a something thick and sticky over my eyes, neck and face that I couldn't get off no matter how many times I wiped my fingers over them. Dad was there. I could feel his strong hands patting away at my body, physically reassuring himself that I was in fact alive and in one piece. "It's okay son, you're alright. I'm right here." He picked me up and started toward the car, but I tried to fight him off and get my feet on the ground. "The werewolf Dad, the werewolf. I… We have to kill it." "It's alright Dean, you already did. You did good son. Real good. No one will ever have to worry about that s-o-b ever again." I blacked out again. Must have been the shock setting in.

When I came to again I was sitting in the front seat of the car, legs hanging out the side and feet barely touching the ground as Dad ran a damp cloth over my eyes to clean them out. It wasn't until I saw that the towel was a deep rusty red color that I realized the thick, sticky stuff had been blood. It was all over my hands too.

When Dad saw me finally open my eyes he pulled a flask from the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to me. "Rough one this time around, wasn't it?" He asked as I took a small sip. The warmth was a small comfort as it drifted all the way down to my stomach, spreading to the rest of my body from there. I could only nod in answer.

Nothing about this job had happened as it should have. First the visit with the Morgans…I didn't want to think about them right now… then the father-son talk Dad and I had…finding out a few days later that the werewolf had survived Dad's first attack… and had retaliated by killing the most wonderful people I'd ever known aside from Dad and Sammy… Coming back right away… a whole week to find the pack… the roles reversing so that Dad ended up backing _me _up instead of the usual other way around.

"How many of them did we get?" I somehow managed to croak out. My throat felt as if it was made of sandpaper from all the screaming I'd done earlier. "Six altogether with that last one." It took a minute for my sluggish mind to do the math…"Six? But there were ten…" "The rest will change back now that the lead wolf is dead. The others already have."

I looked around and was immediately sick. The sight before me was the final straw, I couldn't hold it back anymore. The lead wolf hadn't changed, and wouldn't. But the other five were taking on their human forms in death. There were two boys that I recognized as neighborhood kids from the pictures at the Morgan's house. A couple of unknown shapes that I knew were also people lay here and there. The one that struck me straight through to the core was Jack. He lay on his back, arms outstretched above his head and face turned up to the sky. He looked peaceful, as if he'd fallen asleep stargazing where he lay. So what I saw had been real. "I guess Mr. Morgan missed." was all I was able to say before the torrent of tears began.

For the first time in a very long time I let Dad strap me into my seat like he usually did for Sam. He took me back to the motel where we'd been staying, cleaned me up and got me into some clean pajamas. Instead of getting back into the car and heading back to Sammy though, we spent the night right where we were. For the only time ever since mom died, Dad wrapped me up in a big warm blanket and cuddled me close.

At first I just cried and cried… I cried until I thought my heart was being ripped right out of my chest. Then when all my tears had fallen and there was nothing left for me but silence Dad held me a little closer. "I know it doesn't feel like it now Dean, but you'll get through this. You'll go on and it will get easier. You'll never ever forget… but you _will _be okay again. I promise." I hugged him back hard until I felt okay again… well better anyway.

We spent the night that way, cuddled on the couch eating take-out and watching late night tv until we fell asleep. Dad may not have been around much while we were growing up, but he was there when it really counted. The next morning it was back to business as usual, I found a spirit for us to hunt in Maine on the drive back to pick up Sammy. That was our next destination. I never looked back. At least not until I had to.


	14. Chapter 14 Moving On

_**Moving on…**_

_I woke just before dawn with Annie cuddled in the crook of my arm, fast asleep and smiling. The pillow beneath my head was wet with tears, but I didn't feel sad anymore, or angry or scared like I had all those times before. The werewolves were gone, or at least the Franconia Notch pack was, forever. Annie was here beside me and Dad and Sammy were just down the hall. My scars would heal and so would theirs. I had a good feeling that I may have finally seen the last of those nightmares, finally. _

_The future… now there was a concept! I've never thought of the future past the next hunt. Now…well there were definite possibilities that had never been there before. Whether I would follow through on any of them didn't matter. It just felt good to know that they were there. I would never give up the hunting of course, but now there was…more. (So that was what Sam had been talking about?)_

_Dad had announced last night that we're putting the hunting on hold until I've healed. If something does come up he'll go with Sam, but I'm apparently not allowed near anything supernatural until I'm back to myself. I've got to give the man points for trying. He is my Dad after all and it's nice to know he cares enough to try it. Let's face it though, I'm twenty six and as stubborn as they get. If something comes up I'll be there. That's just the way it is. Whether I'll let Annie come along or not…well, I'll just deal with that particular decision when the time comes. I have no doubt she can handle the life, she's been living it herself in her own way for the last sixteen years. I don't think I want to see her risk her life like that. I think it would be more than I have the strength to watch… But that's an argument for us to have later. Hopefully much, much later. _

_Right now? Well, I think I'll start with a shower…put on a pot of coffee…and then maybe I'll try my hand at mowing the lawn. You know, try something new… _

_It's about time someone helped Annie fix this place up a bit. A run around the yard with the lawn mower, a little paint…the place'll be good as new in no time. Sure I'm sore but when have I ever let a few scratches and a little discomfort slow me down? _


End file.
